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y 1 1st Session J oi:.i>.'vxi:i ^ No. 61 



GGth Congress \ SENATE f Document 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN 
AND BOLSHEVIK PROPAGANDA 



REPORT OF THE 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

PURSUANT TO 

S. RES. 307 and 436 

Sixty-fifth Congress 

RELATING TO CHARGES MADE AGAINST THE 

UNITED STATES BREWERS' ASSOCIATION AND 

ALLIED INTERESTS 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1919 

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SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 136. 

(Submitted by Mr. Nelson.) 

In the Senate of the United States, 

July 28, 1919. 
Resolved, That the report of the Subcommittee on the Judiciary 
who were directed to report the result of their investigation relating 
to charges made against the United States Brewers' Association and 
allied interests be printed as a Senate document. 
Attest : 

George A. Sanderson, 

Secretary, 
n 

D« Of J, 
AUG 13 1919 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN 
PROPAGANDA, AND BOLSHEVIK PROPAGANDA. 



Mr. OvEBiiAN, from the Subcommittee on the Judiciary, submitted 

the following 

REPORT. 

[Pursuant to Senate Resolutions 307 and 436.] 

The Subcommittee on the Judiciary having under consideration the 
resolution directing the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate to 
call for certain evidence and documents relating to charges made 
against the United States Brewers' Association and allied interests 
and to report the result of their investigation to the Senate, have 
concluded their duties. 

The chairman appointed as a subcommittee to investigate the mat- 
ters and things named in said resolution the following Senators: 
Overman (chairman), King, Wolcott, Nelson, and Sterling. 

The resolution directing the committee to make this investigation 
is here printed in full, as follows : 

Whereas Honorable A. Mitchell Palmer, Custodian of Alien Property, on or 
about September fourteenth made the following statement: 

" The facts will soon appear which will conclusively show that twelve or 
fifteen German brewers of America, in association with the United States 
Brewers' Association, furnished the money, amounting to several hundred 
thousand dollars, to buy a great newspaper in one of the chief cities of the 
Nation ; and its publisher, without disclosing whose money had bought that 
organ of pubUc opinion, in the very Capital of the Nation, in the shadow of 
the Capitol itself, has been fighting the battle of the liquor trafiic. 

" When the traflic, doomed though it is, undertakes and seeks by these 
secret methods to control party nominations, party machinery, whole political 
Ijarties, and thereby control the Government of State and Nation, it is time 
the people know the truth. 

" The organized liquor traffic of the country is a vicious interest because it 
has been unpatriotic, because it has been pro-German in its sympathies and 
its conduct. Around these great brewery organizations owned by rich men, 
almost all of them are of German birth and sympathy, at least before we 
entered the war, has gi'own up the societies, all the organizations of this 
country intended to keep young German immip-ants from becoming real 
American citizens. 

1 



2 BREWING A:N"D liquor interests and GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

** It Is around the sangerfests and sangerbunds and organizations of tliat 
Ifind, generally financed by the rich brewers, that tlie young Germans who 
come to America are taught to remember, first, the fatherland, and second, 
America " ; and 
Whereas it has been publicly and repeatedly charged against the United States 
Brewers' Association and allied brewing companies and interests that tliefe 
is in the Department of Justice and in the office of a certain United States 
district attorney evidence showing: 

That the said United States Brewers' Association, brewing companies, and 
allied interests have in recent years made contributions to political cam- 
paigns on a great scale Avithout precedent in the political history of the 
country and in violation of the laws of the land ; 

That in order to control legislation in State and Nation they have exacted 
pledges from candidates to office, including Congressmen and United States 
Senators, before election, such pledges being on file ; 

That in order to influence public opinion to their ends they have heavily 
subsidized the public press and stipulated when contracting for advertising 
space with the newspapers that a certain amount be editorial space, the 
literary material for the space being provided from the brewers' central 
office in New York ; 

That, in order to suppress expressions of opinion hostile to their trade and 
political interests, they have set in operation an extensive system of boycot- 
ting of American manufacturers, merchants, railroads, and other interests ; 

That, for the furthering of their political enterprises, they have erected a 
political organization to carry out their purposes,; 

That they were allied to powerful suborganizations, among them the 
German-American Alliance, whose charter was revoked by the unanimous 
vote of Congress ; the National Association of Commerce and Labor ; and the 
Manufacturers and Dealers' Associations, and that they have their ramifica- 
tions in other organizations apparently neutral in character ; 

That they have on file political surveys of States, counties, and districts 
tabulating the men and forces for and against them, and that they have paid 
large sums of money to citizens of the United States to advocate their cause 
and interests, including some in the Government employ ; 

That they have defrauded the Federal Government by applying to their 
political corruption funds money which should have gone to the Federal 
Treasury in taxes ; 

That they are attempting to build up in the country through the control of 
such organizations as the United States societies and by the manipulation of 
the foreign-language press, a political influence which can be turned to one 
or the other party, thus controlling electoral results ; 

That they, or some of their organizations, have pleaded nolo contendre to 
charges filed against them and have paid fines aggregating large sums of 
money : Therefore be it 

Resolved, That tlie Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate, or any subcom- 
mittee thereof, is hereby authorized and directed to call upon the Honorable 
A. Mitchell Palmer, Alien Property Custodian, and the Department of Justice 
and its United States district attorneys to produce the evidence and documents 
relating to the charges herein mentioned, and to subpcena any witnesses or 
documents relating thereto that it may find necessary, and to make a report of 
the result of such investigation and what is shown thereby to the Senate of 
the United States as promptly as possible. 

The subcommittee began its investigation on September 27, 1918. 
At the request of the subcommittee the Secretary of War very kindly 
detailed from the Judge Advocate General's Department, United 
States Army, to aid the committee, Maj. E. Lowry Humes, formerly 
United States district, attorney for the western district of Pennsyl- 
vania, and from the Military Intelligence Division, United States 
Army, Capt. George B. Lester, an attorney of New York, and also 
the Attorney General very kindly detailed from the Department of 
Justice Mr. William R. Benham, all of whom rendered most valuable 
assistance to the committee in the collection of evidence, the produc- 
tion of testimony, the examination of witnesses, and in the prepara- 
tion of rex)orts. 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 3 
BREWING AND LIQUOR ACTIVITIES. 

The allegations and charges made in said resolution No. 307, here- 
inbefore set out, in regard to the brewing and liquor activities, 
were substantially sustained, as will appear from the printed record, 
volumes 1 and 2, herewith transmitted. 

Your committee in entering upon the investigation directed by said 
resolution No. 307 interpreted that resolution as requiring an inquiry 
into two subjects, to wit : 

1. The conduct and activities of the brewing and liquor interest 
political and otherwise Avas specifically demanded; and 

2. A general inquiry into pro-German propaganda and activities 
was required. The testimony taken having been printed, a review 
thereof is deemed unnecessary. Complying, however, with the man- 
date of the resolution requiring a report of the results established by 
the investigation the following findings are herewith submitted for 
the information and attention of the Senate. 

I. 

With regard to the conduct and activities of the brewing and liquor 
interests, the committee is of the opinion that the record clearly 
establishes the following facts: 

(a) That they have furnished large sums of money for the pur- 
pose of secretly controlling newspapers and periodicals. 

(6) That they have undertaken to and have frequently succeeded 
in controlling primaries, elections, and political organizations. 

(c) That they have contributed enormous sums of money to politi- 
cal campaigns in violation of the Federal statutes and the statutes of 
several of the States. 

(d) That they have exacted pledges from candidates for public 
office prior to the election. 

(e) That for the purpose of influencing public opinion they haA^e 
attempted and partly succeeded in subsidizing the public press. 

(/) That to suppress and coerce persons hostile to and to compel 
support for them they have resorted to an extensive system of boy- 
cotting unfriendly American manufacturing and mercantile con- 
cerns. 

(g) That they liaA'e created their own political organization in 
manj^ States and in smaller political units for the purpose of carrying 
into effect their own political will and have financed the same with 
large contributions and assessments. 

(A) That with a view of using it for their own political purposes 
they contributed large sums of money to the German-American 
Alliance, many of the membership of which w^ere disloyal and un- 
patriotic. 

(i) That they organized clubs, leagues, and corporations of vari- 
ous kinds for the purpose of secretly carrying on their political 
activities Avithout having their interest known to the public. 

(j) That they improperly treated the funds expended for political 
purposes as a proper expenditure of their business and consequently 
failed to return the same for taxation under the revenue laAvs of the 
United States. 



4 BEEWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

{7c) That they undertook through a cunningly conceived plan of 
advertising and subsidation to control and dominate the foreign- 
language press of the United States. 

(I) That they have subsidized authors of recognized standing in 
literary circles to write articles of their selection for many standard 
periodicals. 

(m) That for many years a working agreement existed between the 
brewing and distilling interests of the country by the terms of which 
the brewing interests contributed two-thirds and the distilling inter- 
ests one-third of the political expenditures made by the joint in- 
terests. 

GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

Your committee has conducted a large number of hearings and 
there has been produced before your committee a large amount of in- 
formation through the testimony of witnesses and the production 
of documents in which is shown in considerable detail the system of 
propaganda carried on in the United States by the German Govern- 
ment and its sympathizers after the beginning of the European war. 

The purpose of this inquiry has been to make a public and perma- 
nent record of the important facts and surrounding conditions which 
have made possible the creation and maintenance of ' a system of 
violence, espionage, and distribution of propaganda literature by the 
German Government during the period of our neutrality, in order 
that the public might be informed and that proper legislation by the 
Congress of the United States may render impossible the creation and 
maintenance in the future of a similar system, whether conducted by 
the German Government and its sympathizers or by any other foreign 
power. 

Without going into the detailed activities of the ag'ents and repre- 
sentatives 01 Germany and those who were aiding and assisting them 
in their purpose, it is clear from the evidence that the following may 
be accepted as the established facts: 

For many years prior to the outbreak of the European war the 
Central Powers, especially Germany, had contributed largely to the 
populating of the IJnited States, and according to the United States 
census of 1910 there were resident in the United States 1,337,000 
males who had been born in Germany, and after the United States 
entered into the war with Germany there were registered as German 
alien enemies, pursuant to the President's proclamation of November 
16, 1917, 254,000 males of the age of 18 years and upward. 

There were in addition a vast number of residents within the 
United States who were the immediate descendants of German 
parents, and it has been variously estimated that the so-called Ger- 
man-American population within the United States total upward of 
10,000,000 persons, or approximately one-tenth of our population. 
Of this vast number it is in evidence that a considerable part main- 
tained and designedly perpetuated the language, customs, and racial 
ideals of Germany, and through and by means of the introduction 
and maintenance of the German language in the common schools of 
the various States and in the parochial and religious schools, semi- 
naries and colleges, in conducting religious services in their churches 
in the German language, in the Avide dissemination of German liter- 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 5 

atiire through the German language press, and in the publication, 
both in Germany and in this country, of books and writings in the 
German language, this portion of our population has been educated 
along lines of German thought. 

In addition, these Germans and German-Americans have main- 
tained a system of social segregation through numerous local socie- 
ties and organizations which come under the general head of vereins 
and verbunds, the object and purpose of which have been to preserve 
the language and customs of Germany and to bind together those of 
German lineage. Many of these various societies and associations 
are subsidiary to or a part of so-called staatsverbunds, which in turn 
became subsidiary to and part of the German-American Alliance, a 
national organization incorporated by act of Congress of the United 
States, the charter of which has, however, been revoked by act of 
Congress since the United States entered the war. This organiza- 
tion, with its 1,200 local vereins and verbunds, claimed to have at the 
time of the outbreak of the European war a membership of approxi- 
mately 2,000,000 persons. The members of the alliance never con- 
cealed their main aim, which was to keep their own nationality sepa- 
rate from that of their fellow citizens m the United States, and by 
means of the dissemination of literature by the National Alliance, as 
well as by the State alliances and the local societies, their objects 
were accomplished. 

At the outbreak of the European war the German-American Al- 
liance, through its auxiliary societies, became particularly active in 
its efforts to bring all citizens and residents of the United States of 
German extraction together and to work publicly and privately for 
the aims of Germany. 

In the Official Bulletin the propaganda committee of the German- 
American Alliance, by Joseph Keller, chairman, makes the following 
declaration, which gives a fair idea of the attitude of these Germans 
and German- Americans toward the rest of the country (Bulletin of 
January, 1916) : 

The leaders and lecturers of the German-Amei'ican National Alliance have, 
since the establishment of this organization, never failed to' emphasize the fact 
that the greatness, the strength, and the influence of Germanism in this country 
lies in appreciation of itself, in the recognition of an inviolable union of ideals 
which knows no limits, but only progi-ess and upward aspiration, a union whose 
activity lies in the United States, protecting German style and manner and 
strengthening them. 

That the hyphenated American, as the German-American is now scornfully 
called, must run the gauntlet of the pro-British English press and the Angli- 
cized Americans is largely to be asci'ibed to the fact that the concentration 
of the strength of the entire Geraianism, or, rather, of the descendants of the 
great German race in this land, for which such efforts were made, especially 
during the years just preceding the outbi-eak of the Great War, had not yet 
been realized, inasmuch as in certain circles, especially in German church 
circles, there was to a certain extent a hesitation at forming a union of forces 
with the national alliance. 

Let us in this critical epoch for us German-Americans remember the words 
of Prof. T. Lindsey Playner, of the Central University, Kentucky, who said in 
his time : " Here in the New World, which possesses so much good and so much 
for the blessing of humanity, we believe that we are in no wise untrue to our 
fatherland if we, in contemplation of all that you have conferred on us, our 
spii'itual mother, cry, ' Hail Germania.' " 

As guiding principle and source of teaching, courage and hope, we may 
quote the words of the German pastoi". Otto Wappler, of Monona, Iowa, who 
speaks in the name of his synod : " As German pastors we should no longer 



6 BKEWING AND LIQUOE IISTTERESTS AND GERMAIfT PROPAGAiNDA. 

look as silent spectators on the conflict of political truth and social righteous- 
ness, but enter the arena in full sight of friend and foe, and with the talents 
which we possess serve in conflict the bold champions of the German cause 
as well as we are able. Too long already have we, German pastors, at any 
rate most of us, Lutheran pastors, lain inactively in well-protected trenches 
as little more than passive spectators of the conflict. But, praise God, we 
are finally shaken from our indolence and have determined to take oui' stand 
in the open and take an active part in the struggle for truth and righteous- 
ness before the forum of the public. Heretofore our elforts at reform were 
confined to the tranquillity of the church and the limited circle of the congre- 
gation. But from now on we propose to help in shedding the rays of German 
truthfulness, German honor, and German loyalty, among the masses as far 
as we are able." 

The propaganda committee of the German-American Alliance urges there- 
fore that the beginning of the new year that all German-Americans, forgetting 
all separate interests, build, operate, and exercise their creative ability 
on the rock of true, inviolable union, on which all German life rests, on 
which all the higher ideals of the Germans can securely rest. This is 
the rock on which unfortunately the German-American National Alliance 
was established too late, although the latter can look back upon many fine 
achievements in the German-American struggle for the promotion of its 
peculiar culture and may be regarded in this storm-swept period as a veritable 
Gibraltar standing oiit against all vulgar, malicious insult and ridicule of the 
German name and against the unjust persecution of the German race and its 
offspring in this land provoked by British gold. 

In addition to the German- American Alliance, with its extensive 
ramifications, there existed in the United States for many years 
various secret and semisecret organizations, more or less local in their 
character, that were devoted to the same general object, namely, that 
of preserving the language, customs, and ideals of Germany. Among 
these may be noted the Schlarrafia, a secret organization which had 
its inception in Germany many generations ago and which has been 
transplanted to this country. While it is largely a social secret 
organization, one of its principal objects is the maintenance of the 
respect for the Prussian military ideals and loyal adherence to 
Germany. 

Another organization is the Sons of Herman, a secret organization 
similar to the Masonic fraternity. This organization has lodges in 
various parts of the United States. Its membership is almost exclu- 
sively made up of men of German birth or parentage. 

Another organization is known as the Kriegesbund, a society of 
German Army veterans. The only men eligible to the society are 
men who have served in the German Army. 

It is in evidence, through documents produced by Prof, von Mach, 
that in 1916 an offer was made by Dr. von Mach to the Secretary 
of War of the United States to list and send to the Secretary of War 
the names and addresses of upward of about 400,000 men of German 
birth resident within the United States who had served at one time 
or another in the German Army. The plan was conceived by Her- 
man Ridder, the publisher of the Staats Zeitung, the leading New 
York German language daily paper, who undertook, as stated in his 
letter to Von Mach, to make this census, compile lists, and forward 
them to the Secretary of War. Mr. Garrison, then Secretary of 
War, declined the offer on the ground that the War Department 
could not accept the service. 

It is in evidence before the committee that certain branches of the 
Lutheran Church were particularly active in defending the German 
cause during our period of neutrality, not only by means of religious 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 7 

teachings, but by work through the secular societies, especially tho 
subsidiary organizations of the German-American Alliance. 

Prior to the outbreak of the European war the Hamburg-Ameri- 
can Steamship Co. and North German Lloyd, and the Atlas Line, a 
subsidiary of the Hamburg- American Line, handled a large part of 
the carrying trade between the LTnited States and European countries. 
The Hamburg- American Line maintained a large commercial organi- 
zation in the United States with offices in most of the principal cities 
of the country. Many of the agents and representatives were German 
citizens temporarily resident in the United States. This whole 
organization is semiofficial in that all of these lines were under sub- 
sidy of the German Government and subject to its control and use if 
required. 

At the outbreak of the European Avar the German Government 
had in the United States a very strong and well-trained diplomatic 
corps. The German Embassy in Washington was the headquarters 
of the German diplomatic system and the center of its directing influ- 
ence. This system included the German consuls and consular agents 
V\ho had headquarters and who were stationed at various of the larger 
cities in the United States. The commercial field in many industries 
was dominated by Germans or those of German extraction and sym- 
pathy. These included many of our largest banking institutions and 
many of the large export houses. The chemical and textile industries 
at many of the large centers were owned outright or dominated by 
Germans, many of w^iom were resident in Germany. The brewing 
interests of the country were largely owned and controlled by citizens 
of German extraction. 

There had been built up in the United States a German language 
press with ramifications in practically every part of the country, 
which German language press was represented by large dailies in 
the principal cities of the United States. This German language 
press was supplemented by a vast number of periodicals and maga- 
zines printed in the German language and widely distributed, the 
official newspaper directories showing that upward of 1,100 German 
language publications were in existence in the United States at the 
outbreak of the European war. 

With this situation before them the Imperial German Government 
had some reason to feel confident in August, 1914, that there was 
a powerful German influence in America, and if taken in hand and 
organized and properly directed b}^ skilled agents of the German 
Government, the American Government's policies could be molded 
to suit the interest of Germany. To this end the German Govern- 
ment inaugurated within the United States a propaganda system, the 
main objects of which were — 

First. To prevent the shipment of munitions of war and supplies 
of various kinds to the allied Governments who were at war with 
Germany, by peaceful or other means; and 

Second. To keep the United States on a peace footing and at all 
hazards prevent the LTnited States from entering into the European 
war as an allj'^ of France and England. 

Third. To maintain its solidarity of the German and Austrian 
elements of our population and to retard their assimilation. 

Almost immediately after the outbreak of the European war tho 
German Government sent to the United States Dr. Heinrich Albert, 
S. Doc. 61. 66-1 2 



8 BREWIlJfQ AND LIQUOE INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

a privy councilor of the German ministry of the interior, as a special 
commercial agent to have charge of the financial affairs and general 
direction of the German propaganda in the United States, 

Dr. Albert arrived in August, 1914, and at about the same time Dr. 
Dernberg, who was secretary of state for the colonies in Germany, 
Dr. Isaac Straus, Meyer Genardt, and Capt. Hecker, arrived, all of 
the above being members of a so-called German commission, the 
ostensible object of which was to purchase supplies of various kinds 
for transshipment to Germany, including munitions of war. This 
group brought with them $150,000,000 in German treasury notes, with 
the expectation that these would find a ready sale in the United 
States. As a matter of fact, only $5,000,000 of these notes were 
actually used and these were used for the purpose of collateral in 
raising money. 

Later on other financial arrangements were made by the German 
representatives in this country by means of the sale of German bonds 
and other Government securities and the transfer of credits, and the 
evidence shows that at least $35,000,000 was raised and expended by 
the German Government in the United States for various purposes 
during the period from August, 1914, to February, 1917. 

Upon the arrival of Dr. Albert and Dr. Dernberg and their group 
there was an immediate organization of the German representatives, 
including the embassy forces, and the work of the various depart- 
ments was laid out along the following lines : 

Dr. Albert established headquarters in the offices of the Hamburg- 
American Line, 45 Broadway, New York City, took over one Carl 
Heynen, agent of the Hamburg- American Line at Tampico, Mexico, 
as his main assistant, established financial connections with a number 
of important private banking houses and trust companies, and, with 
Count Von Bernstorff, the German ambassador, proceeded to get in 
touch with important and influential people and concerns in the 
United States who were considered favorable to the German cause. 
American agents and representatives were employed to negotiate the 
purchase of ships, grain, cotton, rubber, and supplies of every nature 
and description ostensibly for shipment to Germany. 

Under Albert's and Yon Bernstorff's direction, Capt. Hans 
Tauscher, representative of the Krupps in Germany, with the assist- 
ance of certain Americans, inaugurated the Bridgeport Projectile 
Co., which was financed by the German Government. This company 
built and partially equipped a large munition plant at Btidgeport, 
Conn., at an expense of upward of $3,500,000. The ostensible pur- 
pose was to manufacture shells and other ammunition, which later on 
could be shipped to Germany. The real purpose was to deplete the 
country, for a period, of machinery and mechanical devices and to 
concentrate labor, and by the manipulation of wages to cause disturb- 
ance in other munition factories, and to buy up and control, tempo- 
rarily at least, the available supply of powder. This enterprise 
started in the summer of 1915 ; the plant was built, a large quantity 
of powder was bought and held for a while, and certain labor disturb- 
ances were brought about in American munition factories located at 
Bridgeport, Conn., during the summer of 1915. Carl Heynen was 
treasurer of the Bridgeport Projectile Co. and, with Tauscher, di- 
rected its operations. 



BREWING AND LIQUOB INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 9 

In connection with the work of Dr. Albert, Count von Bernstorff, 
the German ambassador, detailed Capt. Carl Boy-Ed, the naval at- 
tache of the German Embassy in Washington, and Capt. Franz von 
Papen, the military attache or the embassy, for special work, the pur- 
pose of which was to prevent the shipment of munitions and supplies 
to the Allies. Boy-Ed, as the naval attach^, used the organization 
of the Hamburg- American Line, especially Paul Koenig, head of tlie 
investigating bureau of this line, and his assistants to obtain informa- 
tion concerning the shipment of munitions and supplies, and to pur- 
chase or acquire by option to purchase various articles, such as rubber 
and copper, and it is in evidence that Boy-Ed employed certain 
American agents to endeavor to purchase large numbers of combus- 
tion engines and small boats. 

In the early period of Boy-Ed's activities a certain group of Ger- 
man aliens and others were indicted by the Federal authorities for 
violating the neutrality of the United States by delivering supplies to 
German ships at sea. 

Shortly thereafter an effort was made to prove that the British had 
violated the neutrality of the United States by similar practices. One 
witness before the committee, Avho admitted that he was an agent of 
the German Government and in the pay of Boy-Ed, claimed that he 
had undertaken to and had obtained the evidence showing that vari- 
ous affidavits and statements made by certain tugboat captains and 
others that supplies had been sent to British ships were untrue. 
Whether or not he did this at the instance of Boy-Ed does not 
appear. 

In April, 1915, the German Government sent to the United States 
one Franz Eintelen, who undertook active work to prevent the ship- 
ment of munitions from the United States to the Allies. 

Boy-Ed was suspected of complicity in various acts of violence per- 
petrated by Franz Eintelen, and his activities were so pronounced 
that it was requested by the United States Government that he be 
returned to Germany, and he was relieved as the naval attache of the 
German Embassy on the 4th day of December, 1915, and subsequently 
returned to Germany. 

Immediately upon Eintelen's arrival in the United States he was 
put in touch with David Lamar, " the notorious wolf of Wall Street," 
anda plot was conceived to stop the production of munitions by or- 
ganizing labor employed in munition factories, and an organization 
was formed known as Labor's National Peace Council. Prominent 
Americans, including one United States Congressman, were enlisted 
in the movement. Meetings were held in various of the large cities 
of the United States and resolutions were adopted recommending that 
the manufacture, sale, and shipment of munitions to the belligerent 
powers, as well as all materials used in the production of the same, 
be prohibited by Executive proclamation. 

A convention was held in the latter part of July, 1915, in the city 
of Washington, at which were present some 200 delegates from 
various parts of the United States, and determined effort was made 
to induce the President and Congress to declare an embargo upon the 
manufacture and sale of munitions to the Allies. This scheme was 
financed by the German Govermnent, approximately $500,000 being 
turned over to Lamar. The organization was broken up and never 



10 BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

accomplished anything of consequence for the German Govern- 
ment. The failure was in a great measure due to the action of Mr. 
Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, who refused to give 
the movement any support. The leaders in the movement were all 
indicted by the Federal authorities for violation of the Sherman law 
in conspiring to instigate strikes in munition plants. Rintelen, 
Lamar, and one Martin were convicted and sentenced each to one 
year in jail. 

Rintelen was engaged in attempting to further hinder the ship- 
ment of munitions by the placing of fire bombs on ships, in which 
work he was assisted by Dr. Walter Theodore Scheele, a German 
agent who had resided in the United States sinc« 1909. Scheele 
was an expert chemist and has a complete knowledge of explosives, 
and prior to 1915 had operated a drug store in the city of Brooklyn. 

In 1915 Scheele started a business in Hoboken, N. J., under the 
name of the New Jersey Agricultural Chemical Co., which was 
a cover up for the manufacture of bombs, which were placed by 
employees of the North German Lloyd Line on various ships. 
Scheele and Eintelen were assisted in this work by Capt. Otto 
Wolpert, pier superintendent of the Atlas Line, Avho had the im- 
mediate charge of distributing and planting the fire bombs. Rin- 
telen, Scheele, and Capt. Wolpert and a number of others were all 
iiidicted by the Federal authorities and convicted. Associated with 
Kintelen was a man by the name of Steinberg, who is said to have 
come from Germany with tetanus germs to be used for poisoning 
horses which were being shipped to the Allies. 

Paul Koenig, who was the head of the Hamburg- American Line 
secret investigators, entered the employ of the German Government 
very shortly after the war began, and served as head of the German 
secret service in New York City, working for Dr. Albert, Boy-Ed, 
Count Von Papen, and the German consul and Austria-Hungarian 
consul. Koenig maintained a great force of men. 

Von Papen and Hans Tauscher, the Krupp agent, undertook a 
plan to blow up the Welland Canal in order to prevent shipment of 
grain from the Northwest to the Allies by way of the Great Lakes. 
A German agent who went under the name of von der Goltz had im- 
mediate charge of the plot. Von der Goltz and his immediate asso- 
ciates, as well as Tauscher, were indicted by the Federal grand jury. 
Von der Goltz made a confession to the effect that he was sent by 
Capt. Von Papen, Von Igle, Von Papen's assistant, and others with 
dynamite to blow up the Welland Canal. They found the canal 
guarded and abandoned the enterprise. Von der Goltz was used as a 
Government witness. Von Papen was a diplomatic agent and was 
immune from prosecution, and Tauscher was acquitted. All others 
involved in the plot were convicted. 

Von Papen was also responsible for an attempt to blow up the 
Vanceboro Bridge, using for this purpose a man by the name of 
Werner Horn, to whom he supplied money, and arranged for a 
supply of dynamite, which was carried from New York City by 
Horn to Boston and from Boston to Vanceboro, Me., which attempt 
was only partially successful. 

Von Papen was responsible and directing head of practically all of 
the violence work done by the German agents in the United States, 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 11 

and it was through his agents and under his direction that numerous 
fires and explosions in munition factories were brouglit about and 
attempts at labor disturbances. 

In a communication sent from the Central Purchase Co. (Ltd.) to 
the Prussian ministry of war under date of October 3, 1917 (see the 
record, p. 1930), Dr. Albert's statement of account of his dealings 
with Von Papen is set forth, in which he takes credit for payments 
amounting to $280,000 as money being turned over to Von Papen 
while in America. 

From a copy of a letter sent by Boy-Ed to Von Papen on the 
3d of March, 1917, which letter is written by his excellency Von. 
Igle Schwerin, the following is quoted : 

Herr Von Papen's career closed with quite a disaster. He was charged 
with being concerned in many explosions in munition factories, in so far as 
that he had given the money for the procuring of materials and instructed the 
people. It appears, too, that some really childish arrangements were made, 
which every one capable of forming an opinion could have seen beforehand 
could not have the slightest use for us, whereas if the affair went askew a 
great injury must result. For example, the destruction of the Welland Canal, 
as well as the attempt to destroy a railway bridge in Canada. Even if both 
these had been successful, there were a lot of other ways for transporting the 
corn to the seaports, and the bridge, too, could only have upset the traffic 
for a few hours. Both attempts ended in absolute fiasco. The people who 
were involved in the affair will meet with a sentence and one, of the name 
of Horn, had become a cripple and will have to spend a year locked up in 
prison. All that could have been forgiven since failures in such things can 
not always be avoided, also much has been performed by Herr Von Papeu 
advantageous to us. 

It is clear that plans were made by the German Government for 
extensive and far-reaching acts of violence, much of which was 
frustrated by the activities of State and Federal officials and lack 
of cooperation by trusted German agents. 

Capt. Tunney's testimony gives a fair account of the violent work 
of the Germans in and about the city of New York, which can be 
taken as a fair example of attempts in different parts of the country. 

The German Government, no doubt, counted largely upon the fact 
that in the various munition and other manufacturing plants in the 
United States there were employed a large number of German and 
Austrian subjects, whose sympathies would be for Germany, and who 
would act in accordance with the wishes of the German Government, 
even to the point of destructive methods. 

In conjunction Avith the activities of the German Government, 
through its representatives Von Bernstorff and Von Papen, to pre- 
vent the production and shipment of munitions during the year 1915, 
there was inaugurated by direction of Ambassador Dumba, the 
Austro-Hungarian minister to the United States, and Count Von 
Bernstorff what was known as the Liebau Labor Relief Bureau, which 
M-as an employment agency or bureau run by one Hans Liebau and 
organized and maintained for the purpose of taking Austro-Hun- 
garians and Germans out of munition and other factories. This 
bureau had its headquarters in the city of New York, and branches 
in Philadelphia, Pa., Bridgeport, Conn., Chicago, 111., Pittsburgh, 
Pa., and Cleveland, Ohio. 

In a communication from the German Embassy to the foreign office 
in Berlin, under date of March 24, 1916, a review of the activities of 



12 BREWING AIS'D LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA, 

the bureau is given and the necessity of a continuance of the bureau 
is made evident. This report says, in p^rt ; 

I take the liberty to refer to the communication of the imperial and royal 
Autro-Hungarian chargg d'affaires, dated Marcli 4, concerning the Liebau 
bureau, copy of which was sent here. I see from that communication that noth- 
ing is known to the imperial and royal charge d'affaires relative to the arrange- 
ments of the imperial and royal Ambassador Dumba, which included, a subsidy 
of the aforesaid bureau for a lengthy period. 

My inquires have disclosed that in the course of a conference with Capt. Von 
Papen, Messrs. Rittmeister Hecker, Dr. Von Kleinwaechter, and Consul Otto, the 
Attache Prince Hohenlohe, as representative of the imperial and royal am- 
bassador, advised that the Imperial and Royal Government, as well as the Ger- 
man Government, would support the undertaking. On the strength of that an- 
nouncement the activities of the bureau were also extended to subjects of the 
Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. 

This communication then goes on to state that the bureau after 
being in operation for six and one-half months had received over 
8,000 applications and had filled 4,466 positions permanently, one- 
third of whom were Austro-Hungarian subjects. 

The report then continues : 

Patriotic sentiment and allegiance for the fatherland among the workmen 
has undoubtedly been awakened through the activity of this employment 
agency. Repeatedly people have visited the central and branch offices in order 
to express their thanks for the assistance furnished them. However, I will 
not go into the question now as to whether or not the continuation of the 
bureau after the war appears desirable. 

At any rate, for the period of the war the continuation of this institution is 
desirable and will be maintained for military reasons by the German Govern- 
ment even if the Imperial and Royal Government should withdraw its support 
from the bureau. Many disturbances and vacancies suffered by the war- 
material concerns, which could not always be removed quickly, but on the 
contrary often resulted in long-drawn strikes, can be traced back to the 
energetic propaganda of the workmen's relief. 

This bureau was financed jointly by Germany and Austria and 
continued up to about the time M^hen the United States entered the 
war. Germany paid two-thirds of the expenses and Austria one- 
third, and there is evidence that Germany's foreign office authorized 
a charge to be made by the embassy of $25,000 toward supporting 
the Liebau Bureau, or the workmen's relief, as it was sometimes 
called. 

Mr. Bielaski has testified that there were, approximately, a million 
German and Austrian reservists in the United States, and that the 
agencies of the Department of Justice, supplemented by various 
other governmental investigating bureaus, and the local police offi- 
cials of the various cities and towns of the United States aggregated, 
approximately, 700,000 men. With such a force and the protection 
it afforded, a wholesale destruction of property would be almost im- 
possible. 

There is in addition one very potent factor which militated against 
the plans of the German agents, that is the high wages paid to the 
employees in munition factories and the natural aversion which the 
average man has for destruction or damage to the plant in which he 
is working and from which he is deriving his living. The fact re- 
mains, however, and is clearly established that well-defined plans 
were made to prevent the manufacture and shipment of munitions 
and supplies by destructive and violent methods which were only 
partially successful and covered only a short period of time. 



BEE WING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 13 

Shortly after the arrival of Dr. Albert and Dr. Dernberg in tho 
United States in August, 1914, there was established under their 
direction an organization for the di&somination of German propa- 
ganda through newspapers and the public press. This organization 
was known as the German Information Service and has been referred 
to as the German Information Bureau. It had its headquarters at 
1123 Broadway, New York City, and was in the immediate charge 
of Dr. Carl A. Fuehr, together with a corps of translators, writers, 
and assistants, who conducted the operations of the bureau from the 
fall of 1914 down to about the 1st of February, 1917. 

Dr. Bernard Dernberg was sent by the German Government to 
the United States ostensibly as a private citizen, but in reality to 
have general supervision of the publicity propaganda in the United 
States. 

Dr. Carl A. Fuehr was the former commercial attache of the Ger- 
man embassy in Tokyo, Japan, and came from Japan to New York 
shortly after the outbreak of the European war. 

The bureau employed Mathew B. Claussen, who had been pub- 
licity agent of the Hamburg- American Line, as the ostensible man- 
ager of the bureau under Dr. Fuehr, and in the early stages of the 
bureau's operation publicity was given to the fact that the bureau 
was " conducted by M. B. Claussen," at the request of a number of 
American citizens who believed that the public desired to be informed 
as to both sides of the war, that it may form its own opinions from 
the facts. That, of course, was done to deceive the public, because 
the bureau was organized, financed, and directed by the official rep- 
resentatives of Germany. 

The main functions of the bureau were to prepare daily what was 
known as an information sheet, which contained articles on" the war 
strongly favoring Germany and giving information which tended to 
uphold the German cause. These sheets were sent gratis to news- 
papers all over the United States, from five to eight hundred news- 
papers being supplied with this service. In addition the bureau 
printed and distributed a large quantity of pamphlets, books, and 
leaflets, and in this connection worked in close conjunction with 
George Sylvester Vierick, editor of a weekly paper called the Father- 
land, which was stronglj'- pro-German and which had a wide circula- 
tion among Germans and German- Americans in the United States. 

Dr. Deniberg's work was largely supervisory, so far as the bureau 
was concerned, he devoting a great deal of his time and energies 
to delivering lectures in different parts of the country and in get- 
ting in contact with men of prominence in literary and educational 
circles and enlisting the efforts of newspaper representatives to give 
a favorable comment on the German cause. 

Dr. Dernberg and Dr. Albert undertook to negotiate the pur- 
chase of a great daily newspaper in the city of New York, and 
through ao^ents and representatives made plans for the acquisition 
of some 01 the prominent nevvspapers, resulting finally in the pur- 
cha.se of the New York Evening Mail and the placing of Dr. Edward 
A. Eumely in charge as managing editor. 

Dr. Dcrnberg's work as a propagandist in the United States came 
to a termination as a result of a speech which he made immediately 
following the sinking of the Lusitania, in which speech he justified 
the action of the German Government. 



14 BREWING AN^D LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERJMAN PROPAGANDA. 

Dernberg was never credited as a diplomatic representative to the 
United States by the German Government, and he returned to Ger- 
many in June, 1915. 

In December, 1914, the bureau engaged the services of Dr. Wil- 
liam Bayard Hale to take charge of the publication of the daily in- 
formation sheet. Dr. Hale was well known as an author and writer. 
Hale continued as head of the German Information Bureau from 
December, 1914, to December, 1915, receiving a salary of $15,000 a 
year. 

In addition to Dr. Hale and Vierick, Dr. Fuehr had the coopera- 
tion and assistance of Dr. Isaac Straus, who had charge of the Jewish 
propaganda, and Dr. Hecker, who had been sent from Germany to 
take charge of the German Eed Cross. He was also assisted by 
Mej'er, one of the directors of the Hamburg- American Line, and 
Privy Councilor Dr. Meyer Gehardt, who accompanied Dr. Albert 
from Germany. In addition there was Dr. Carl Mechlenberg and a 
group of translators and readers, who assisted in compiling the 
material for publication. 

The scheme of propaganda was to write up each day a series of 
articles strongly pro-German in their character, which articles were 
compiled from the daily press, from German newspapers, German 
magazines, German books, and American books. 

For the purposes of the bureau there were transported to them from 
Germany quantities of German literature, consisting of books, maga- 
zines, illustrated periodicals of various kinds, scientific publications, 
books on the war, and war articles. From these were built up the 
articles which appeared in the news sheets and in the various books 
and pamphlets distributed directly by the bureau or through the 
BTmierous organizations which were created for propaganda purposes. 

The evidence shows that in Dr. Fuehr's files there were records of 
3,906 different topics, out of which Fuehr had made use of 1,430 
items, by either giving them to the newspapers through the German 
information sheets or otherwise. 

In addition to the German information news service, the bureau 
maintained what was known as the Irish press and news service. 
This was maintained in separate offices at 42 West Forty-second 
Street, New York City, but was under the control of Dr. Fuehr and 
his agents. The active manager of the Irish press and news service 
for the Germans was one James K. Maguire, who, with his corps of 
assistants, sent out news-service bulletins two or three times a week to 
18 or 20 newspapers in many of which he personally was interested 
and also to various daily newspapers. Copies of all propaganda 
material supplied by the Irish press and news service was sent to 
Dr. Fuehr. 

Throughout the German propaganda work in the United States 
use was made by the Germans of the disaffection of the Irish toward 
England and common cause was made by the adroit German agents 
with the Irish- Americans, and throughout the various associations 
and societies inaugurated by German propaganda will be found 
the Irish-American element strongly affiliated, as in the early stages 
the German agents convinced numerous people prominent in the 
Irish-American groups in the United States of the justness of the 
German cause and the advantage of a close alliance of Germany and 
the Irish sympathizers as against England. 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 15 

Dr. Albert's part in the propaganda Avork of the German repre- 
sentatives was to attend conferences with Dr. Fuehr, Dr. Hale, and 
others, advise on the general plan of propaganda and to himself de- 
liver talks and lectures in clubs and in more or less exclusive circles 
of literary men and educators. 

Part of the system was to enlist the aid and assistance of profes- 
sors in American colleges as writers in favor of Germany, so that their 
personal influence and influence of their reports could be used to the 
iidvantage of the German cause. 

There is in the record a list of men prominent as professors and 
teachers in various of the American universities whose services were 
enlisted in the cause of Germany and Avho wrote and lectured in favor 
of the German cause. Many of their writings Avere published in 
Verick's Fatherland in the first instance, and then widely distributed 
in pamphlet form. 

A list of a number of the books distributed by the Fuehr bureau 
will be found on pages 1410 and 1415 of the record. 

The Jewish propaganda, as stated, Avas conducted by Dr. Straus, 
who was sent here by Dr. Dernberg and Dr. Albert from Germany 
especially for the purpose. 

It appears to have been the idea of the German GoA^ernment that 
inasmuch as Russia was fighting against Germany, the Jews would 
naturally affiliate Avith Germany, Russia having oppressed them for 
many years. 

Dr. Straus devoted himself to that work. Dr. Straus was assisted 
by a translator by the name of L. S. Malamecle, who was sent from 
Germany for the purpose. 

In a letter written by Dr. Straus to Dr. Albert, under date of Oc- 
tober 20, 1914, the following is quoted : 

The manipulation of tlie Jewish press in America, formerly casual, has now 
been changed by me into a regular systematic information service and organized 
on a firm basis. This was extremely necessary considering the peculiar nature of 
the Jewish press and the difficult conditions in other countries where Jews have 
not full citizenship. The confirmation of this opinion is furnished by the follow- 
ing article from Die AVarheit, of which I spoke to you recently. 

You see that the pro-German attitude of the Jews here has put the times into 
a tremendous rage. The bureau began business yesterday and I spend several 
hours there daily. Dr. Malamede works according to my instructions and under 
my supervision. 

In another communication sent by Dr. Malamede about the same 
time is a report on his work in the JeAvish press, showing the distribu- 
tion of A'^arious pro-German articles in different Jewish publications 
in various parts of the United States. 

The report shows that from the period of June 14, 1915, down to 
January 4, 1916, Dr. Straus receiA^ed approximately $28,000 from the 
German Government, presumably for a small part of the Jewish 
I^ropaganda, for other records show that Straus received from Dr. 
Albert's office between four and five million dollars. 

In further connection with the expenses of the German propa- 
ganda the following should be noted : That the German Government 
had spent up to June 21, 1915, on press propaganda in the United 
States the sum of $786,000 and in addition to the sum of about 
$1,700,000 expended in the purchase of the Evening Mail and its 
manipulation. In addition to the money spent in New York, the 
S. Doc. 61, 66-1 3 



16 BRBWIKG AlfD LIQUOR IIJ^TKBESTS AMD GERMAN PROPAGANDA, 

German consnls througliout the country were furnished various sums 
by Von Bernstorff for different purposes, and the aggregate amount 
expended by the German Government for the purpose above stated 
is believed by your committee to be greatly in excess of the amounts 
disclosed by the evidence. A press bureau was maintained at Stui 
Francisco by the German consulate, and the evidence shows th:it 
large quantities of propaganda literature were sent by the Fuelir 
Bureau into Mexico. 

As part of the information service there was operated and main- 
tained what was known as the Trans-ocean News Service, which was 
operated under the direction of Dr. Fuehr and his assistants, which 
was a wireless news service from New York to Berlin by way of 
Sayville, Long Island, and the Nauen wireless station in Germany. 
Bv means of this service the German agents operating under the 
d i lection of Dr. Albert and Dr. Fuehr were kept in direct coromuni- 
c:\tion with Berlin at all times and news information covering 
exerj conceivable phase of American activities was collected, classi- 
fied, and forwarded to Berlin, and it was by means of the wireless 
service that a great deal of the current information concerning war 
happenings that went to make up the German information sheet was 
received. 

.At the commencement of the European war there were wireless 
plants located at Sayville, Long Island, and Tuckerton, N. J., owned 
and controlled by German interests, capable of receiving and trans- 
mitting messages to and from Berlin. Through this means of com- 
munication material received from Germany was forwarded to 
various centers for distribution in Central and South America and 
the West Indies by cable. The expenses of the New York bureau 
conducted by Mr. Fuehr for such cable service amounted to many 
thousands of dollars a month. 

A letter from the German propagandist agent at Corumba, Brazil, 
dated May 27, 1916, which was intercepted by the British secret serv- 
ice, reads, in part, as follows : 

It would be very fitting if immediately after the war a commission of wireless 
telegraphy was sent to all the States of South America to obtain concessions 
from the different governments for the establishment of wireless stations and 
to start constructing the same immediately. The Sayville-Tuckerton station 
has been invaluable and without it South America would have been in the 
hands of the Anglo-French news service. The establishment of wireless is 
certainly cheaper than cable and impresses Creole governments about its sim- 
plicity and modernity. 

All of the propaganda work in the United States, Mexico, and 
South America was conducted under the immediate direction of the 
German foreign office at Berlin by the central section for foreign 
news service, or Zentralstelle fiir Auslandsdienst. This section of 
the foreign office was under the immediate direction of Dr. Thiel, and 
was the bureau to which Dr. Fuehr reported. It was charged with 
the preparation of news matter, films, books, etc., for war propa- 
ganda in foreign countries and was the principal source from which 
foreign newspaper correspondents in Berlin obtained material for 
their dispatches. 

One of the principal and most important means of disseminating 
German propaganda was through the medium of moving pictures, 
and early in the year of 1915 the German Government organized in 



BBEWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 17 

the United States a film corporation known as the American Cor- 
respondence Film Co., with headquarters in the city of New York, 
for the purpose of receiving from Germany moving-picture films of 
various war scenes and civil life in Germany for dissemination 
through the moving-picture houses in the United States 

In a letter of Zimmerman, secretary of foreign affairs of tlie 
German Government, dated March 1, 1915, addressed to Count Von 
Bernstorff, directions are given for the carrying on of this type of 
propaganda. The letter states, in part, as follows : 

I beg to advise your excellency that 5 copies of a film 1,200 meters long will 
shortly go to the German Burt*au of Information in New York. 

As propaganda through pictures has shown itself to be remarkably effective 
in neutral foreign countries, it seems expedient to place this work of publica- 
tion on a greater basis than heretofore. 

In consideration of the fact that the sending of larger packages to the United 
States at this time encounters insuperable difRculy, the establishment and 
extension of a central place in New York, organized on a large scale, seems 
imi>eratively necessary. In this case particularly sharp proofs of all photo- 
graphs and films received here should be sent in two exemplifications in letter 
form by different routes to the central point in New York. The latter could 
then, by calling on experts and persons well informed of conditions there — 

1. Have produced from the original photographs there on the spot dupli- 
cates, enlargements, stereotype plates, illustrated writings and compositions, 
stereopticon pictures, etc. 

2. Undertake the exhibition of this entire picture and films in the whole 
country through agencies to be established in all the larger cities. 

In a report of Dr. Fuehr to Dr. Albert under date of April 20, 
1915, the former states : 

As I had the honor to explain briefly at the session of tlie press bureau on 
the 12th of this month, it seems settled that an especial registered company 
will be formed to obtain good war films in Germany adapted to propaganda in 
this country and to circulate the same in the United States. 

According to the wireless received here yesterday, the plan mentioned has 
been officially approved in BerUn. 

The company, whose incorporation under the firm name "American Corre- 
spondence Film Co." has been accomplished to-day under the proper authori- 
ties, is in need of a capital of nominally $10,000, divided into 1,000 shares of 
$10 per share. 

The interest of the Imperial Government in this undertaking consists in the 
facts that the company should not work for the greatest possible financial profit 
from the disposal of tlie war films, but lay chief emphasis on the greatest pos- 
sible circulation of them in the most respectable film theaters of the land. 

The company was incorporated with a nominal capital of $10,000, 
which was shortly increased to $140,000. The enterprise was placed 
in the hands of Mathew B. Claussen, of the Hamburg- American 
Line, associated with whom were Felix Malitz, Adolph Ingel, and 
Dr. Fuehr, the latter retaining control of the company. The enter- 
prise was largely financed by German money, and a scheme was 
adopted of smuggling films into the United States by way of neu- 
tral countries through arrangements made with the chief stewards 
of certain steamships. As a result of these activities, Malitz and 
Ingel were indicted by the Federal authorities, convicted, and sen- 
tenced to terms of imprisonment. 

A great many films were brought over, the company having sent 
two men to Germany to take the pictures and write the scenarios, 



18 BKEWING AND LIQUOE INTEKESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

and there was considerable distribution throughout the moving-pic- 
ture houses of the United States. An effort was made to interest the 
Hearst Film Service in handling all of the films obtained and pro- 
duced by the American Correspondence Film Co., but the proposition 
was not consummated. 

Under date of December 3, 1915, Dr. Fuehr makes a report to Von 
Bernstorff which indicates that the display of films was considered by 
him to be effective. The letter, in part, is as follows : 

Our opponents now seem to liave recognized the effectiveness of this propa- 
ganda and are exhibiting films from their fronts, whicli do not fail to make an 
impression, with extraordinary outlays for extensive advertising and under the 
patronage of the highest personalities. Some of the films exhibited are quite 
excellent ; others are obviously maneuver pictures, which, however, have a 
thrilling effect upon the public. 

He ^ 4i :ii 4: :{! sj: 

Would it not be possible to secure similar pictures of our fronts for distribu- 
tion to the American Correspondence Film Co.? We have far more celebrated 
men to introduce than any of our opponents; we have the most varied fronts; 
we have a much grander organization. 

With the films which we have heretofore received, mostly from Austria and 
much from Germany, our business manager, with a skill highly worthy of 
recognition, has made up four good film dramas, but there is no doubt that he 
would do much better if our people were given more opportunity to take inter- 
esting views. 

According to the books of the American Correspondence Film Co., 
it had received up to October 31, 1915, from the German Government 
the sum of $78,600. 

In May of 1916 the assets and property of the company were 
turned over by the German Government to Malitz and wound up 
their direct connection with the film business. 

As part of the German propaganda system in the United States, 
Dr. Albert, Count Von Bernstorff, and other German representa- 
tives and agents were particularly active in the organization of and 
subsidizing of innumerable societies and leagues formed for the pur- 
l.>ose of spreading German propaganda, and one at least for the defi- 
nite purpose of influencing national legislation. 

A review of all of these organizations and their various ramifica- 
tions would be impracticable, but reference may be had to the most 
important ones as typical of this part of the system. 

The most important and far-reaching of the efforts made by the 
German Government and its sympathizers was the organization of 
what was knoAvn as the American embargo conference, which was 
organized in the summer of 1915. Those in direct charge of the move- 
ment were William Bayard Hale, then in the employ of the German 
Government and cosnected with the Dr. Fuehr Bureau; one G. H. 
Jacobson, from Chicago; Carl E. Schmidt, of Detroit, Mich.; Rev. 
Charles F. Aked ; Will E>. McDonald, a newspaper man, who was en- 
gaged as press agent; and George F. Hanscher, president. The 
organization was incorporated in September of 1915 under the laws 
of Illinois. The organization and its activities are described in a 
report made by Jacobson to William Bayard Hale, which reads in 
part as follows: 

The organization of the American embargo conference was first formally 
discussed at a meeting held in Detroit on July 10, 1915. This meeting was 
attended by representative men from Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Minne- 
sota, and several other States. 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 19 

At this meeting numerous plans were canvassed in an effort to adopt one 
tliat would be most likely to brinj: about the success of the embargo movement, 
and when the plans had been outlined the committee adjourned to allow the 
representatives to consider them all thoroughly, with the understanding that 
they would be again canvassed at a meeting to be held in Chicago on July 24. 

A meeting was held in Chicago, and the plan adopted was to 
endeavor to influence the voters of the United States, particularly 
tlie German-American voters, to use every effort with their Congress- 
men and Senators to pass a resolution which would be introduced 
prohibiting the shipping of munitions and supplies to the Allies. 
The plan adopted was exceedingly comprehensive, in that it con- 
templated a local organization in every town and city in the United 
States and the obtaining of signatures to individual declarations by 
voters who either were opposed to the shipment of munitions and 
supplies to the Allies or who could be persuaded to oppose the 
shipment. 

The report of Jacobson to Dr. Hale states : 

The first weeks of the campaign taught us that it would be necessary for the 
conference to depend in many ways upon the worlcers in the different localities, 
and this brought about the plan to establish local branches of the conference in 
all of the cities, towns, and villages of the United States. 

This work has been pushetl rapidly during the past two weeks, and already 
the conference has found that the local organization plan will make it possible 
to have the vote lined up and under orders in time to make it possible for the 
voters to show the Congressmen a strength that they will be afraid to ignore. 

The method of doing this has been to secure the name or names of persons 
in different localities who are known to be strongly in favor of an embargo. 
We have secured these names in different manners. In one way we sent out 
letters to the editors of the different German papers of the country asking them 
to supply us with names. Again, we took the names of writers who had se- 
cured some of our postal cards and had not contented themselves with sending 
in their pledges, but had written for more cards or had sent in contributions 
to help the movement or had written to ask in what nianoer they could give 
their services. 

And further on the report states : 

In addition to all this, a staff of German-American speakers, under the direc- 
tion of Dr. Herman Gerhard, has been at work among the German-Americar^ 
organizations of the States of Illinois, of Indiana, of Michigan, of Wisconsin, 
and of Nebraska, and these speakers have been teaching the doctrine of organi- 
zation until we can say that it has been well drilled into the German-Americana 
of these sections, and already they are at work lining up the voters of other 
nationalities. 

« * 4: * * * * 

To aid in the initial work in Illinois, Dr. Gerhard, an excellent speaker and 
a most successful organizer, was brought to Chicago from Texas, and, as has 
been said before,, was placed in charge of the speakers of our German-American 
bureau. Dr. Gerhard first devoted his time to the German-American societies 
of Chicago, and his success in securing their hearty support and offers of as- 
sistance was such as to lead the conference to add other speakers, and these 
men are now being sent out as rapidly as our funds will permit. 

The report then goes into more detail about describing the distri- 
bution of literature of various kinds, including pamphlets and copies 
of editorials from certain prominent American newspapers which 
Avere in favor of the embargo, and then says : 

To-day J. J. Tobias, of the Friends of Peace, in an interview in the Chicago 
Herald, declared that the Teutonic voters of the country to the number of five 
million were " going to raise hell with any party not in our favor." One 
mouth ago this statement w^ould have called down the wrath of a score of 
editorial writers. To-day the editorial w'riters and the politicians are wonder' 



20 BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

Ing just how close to the right number of voters Mr. Tobias was when he 
put the figure at five million. 

And if the American embargo conference's success continues to grow as it 
has been growing during these early and trying weeks of its short career the 
politicians of the country will find that the Teutonic voters of the country are 
not standing alone but are lined up with other Americans in a body of Ameri- 
cans who are all real Americans and of so many nationalities that no one will 
attempt to drag out one nationality and attempt to hold it up to scorn as the 
friends of the munition forces have been attemping to do with the German- 
American vote. 

The report shows that the embargo conference was particularly- 
active in the States of Illinois, Indiana, New York, Arkansas, Ala- 
bama, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, and Michi- 
gan. 

As a result of the activities of this group which composed the 
embargo conference the members of Congress were flooded with 
numerous prepaid telegrams from all over the country, all of which 
telegrams were prepaid by the embargo conference in different forms 
and made to appear as though coming from separate groups of people 
who were solely prompted by their own views in sending the request. 

The embargo conference continued its activities through 1916 and 
into the early part of 1917. It was financed in part by contribu- 
tions made by citizens, many of whom were of German extraction, 
and a partial list of these contributions appears in the record on 
pages 1508 to 1512. 

Confidential communications which passed between Von Bern- 
storff to the foreign office in Berlin and from other German agents, 
show that the movement was financed in a large measure by the Ger- 
man Government. 

E,eiswitz, the German consul at Chicago, under date of December 
21, 1915, sent a cipher message to the German ambassador requesting 
financial assistance for the embargo conference to the extent of six 
or seven thousand dollars to continue its activities, stating that the 
embargo conference has rendered service worthy of acknowledgment. 

In September, 1916, Von Bernstorff sent a message to the foreign 
office, Berlin, in part, as follows: 

The embargo conference in regard to whose earlier fruitful cooperation Dr. 
Hale can give information, is just about to enter upon a vigorous campaign to 
secure a majority in both Houses of Congress favorable to Germany, and 
requests further support. There is no possibility of our being compromised. 

And later, on January 22, 1917, just prior to the breach in diplo- 
matic relations, Count Von Bernstorff sent the following message to 
the foreign office in Berlin : 

I request authority to pay out up to $50,000 in order, as on former occasions, 
to influence Congress, through the organization you know of, which can per- 
haps prevent war. I am beginning in the meantime to act accordingly. In 
the above circumstances a public ofiicial German declaration in favor of Ireland 
is highly desirable in order to gain the support of Irish influence here. 

It was about this time that the embargo conference, which had been 
continued by popular subscription as well as by German subsidy, 
was causing telegrams to be sent to Congressmen and Senators from 
all parts of the country, urging them to stand firm against any 
declaration of war. Specimens of these telegrams are as follows : 

Your constituents urge and expect you to stand like a rock against the pass- 
ing frenzy of insane and criminal folly on the part of the small jMjrtion of 
Interested persons who are clamoring for war. We want peace. Nothing 
warrants any other action. 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 21 

Another reads as follows: 

If warlike rumors coming from Washington are true, will you let me reassure 
you that the great majority of your constituents stand for peace, believe war 
now unnecessary and uncalled for, and will resent being precipitated into the 
European conflict. 

In the early stages of the activities of the embargo conference, in 
1915, Dr. Hale organized a women's auxiliary known as the League 
of American Women for Strict Neutrality, which had its headquar- 
ters in the city of Baltimore. The object of this association was to 
enlist the women of the United States against war and the shipment 
of munitions and supplies to the Allies. 

At one of the conferences held at Dr. Fuehr's office, written report 
of which is in the record at page 1394, the following appears : 

Mr. Hale then reports concerning the progress of his negotiations with the 
Baltimore ladles concerning the propaganda against the export of arms. 

All preparations were made for carrying through the project of poster adver- 
tising. A pamphlet entitled " Thou ehalt not kill," written by Mr. Hale, has 
been printed and will be sent out. Signatures to a petition to Congress collected 
by the ladies now number 200,000 and will in time perhaps reach 600,000. The 
ladies have applied for assistance in their campaign to a number of persons 
named by Mr. Hale. It is suggested that it be put up to the ladies to address 
the petition to the President and Congress and not wait until the collection 
of signatures is complete before sending it to Washington, but send them at once 
In batches of about 10,000. 

The League of American Women for Strict Neutrality received 
$20,000 from the German fund for poster advertising, which sum was 
paid through Dr. Hale. 

In the same report the following is stated ; 

Mr. Claussen proposes to have a film prepared for propaganda against the 
exportation of arms, which shall exhibit the manufacture of American shrapnel 
munition and afterwards show in drastic style the results of the use of this 
munition. 

Mr. Hale reports that Mrs. Hale is busy upon propaganda against the exporta- 
tion of horses. Mr. Claussen undertakes to have a correspondingly touching 
scenario (story of former fire-brigade mare slaughtered in Flanders) written. 

At this same conference, which took place on May 24, 1915, the 
report states: 

Mr. Hale calls attention to the interview, printed in the evening papers, with 
the surviving passenger of the Lusitania, Dr. Foss, who has arrived here. 
It is resolved that Mr. Claussen have the said Foss interviewed as to whether 
the Lusitania had any guns mounted on the deck at the time she was torpedoed. 
Mr. Meyer undertakes to prepare a collection of newspaper clippings in his 
office containing statements of passengers, etc., which show the blame attached 
to the Cunard Line. Mr. Fuehr will also prepare a similar collection. 

The evidence shows that an attempt was made on the part of 
the German Government to prove by various false affidavits of pas- 
sengers and those who claimed to be passengers that the Lusitania 
carried guns mounted on her forward deck, all of which was after- 
wards disproven and admitted to be false by German representatives 
in this countr3^ However, as a result of Dr. Fuehr's work, enor- 
mous publicity was given to the claim of the Germans that the Liisi- 
fania was armed and consequently the act of the German submarine 
in sinking her was justified. 

As part of the German propaganda system there was incorporated 
by one Jeremiah A. O'Leary, an American citizen of Irish extrac- 
tion, what was known as the American Truth Society, which had 



22 BKEWIFG AliTD LIQUOR INTEEESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

a very large membership, made up principally of Germans and 
German- Am.ericans and American citizens of Irish extraction. This 
association had its headquarters in the city of New York and had 
among its prominent members and organizers such men as George 
Sylvester Viereck, Bernard H, Eitter, of the New York Staats Zie-. 
tung ; Frederick F. Schroeder, associated with Viereck in the publica- 
tion of the Fatherland ; and JeremiaK" A. O'Leary , who was the presi- 
dent of the society. 

O'Leary's activities were mainly directed to lectures and address- 
ing public meetings in New York and in various parts of the United 
States, writing articles for the German propaganda publications, 
and conducting a publication of his own known as The Bull. 
O'Leary's writings and speeches were violently anti-British and up- 
held the cause of Germany as against England. 

The society published a large number of pro-German and anti- 
British pamphlets and books, which had a wide distribution, a list 
of which is found on page 1541 of the record. An examination of 
these pamphlets and books show their violent anti-British and pro- 
German character. 

Just how much the German Government assisted in financing the 
American Truth Society has never been developed, but the records 
show the transfer of approximately $10,000 to the society through a 
banking house in New York, which money came from the German 
Government, and a direction by Dr. Albert in a letter of April 19, 
1915, to another banking house to pay over to the treasurer of the 
society the sum of $500 and charge the same to his account. 

The society was maintained in a large measure by financial contri- 
butions of its members, 80 or 90 per cent of the contributors being 
German or German extraction. 

O'Leary is under indictment by the Federal authorities for viola- 
tion of the Federal statutes on account of his activities. 

This society was particularly active during the year 1915 in the 
concentrated effort being made to induce Congress to place an em- 
bargo upon the shipment of munitions and supplies to allied Govern- 
ments, and to the formation of a large association of various pro- 
German societies which went under the name of the Friends of 
Peace, which was organized through the assistance of the German- 
American Alliance of the city of New York, of which Henry 
Weissman was president. 

The Friends of Peace held two large meetings in 1916, one in 
Madison Square Garden, in New York, and one in Chicago, which 
meetings were addressed by prominent Americans who were in 
favor of peace for the United States at any price and who were 
particularly in favor of an embargo on shipment of munitions to the 
Allies. These addresses were widely distributed by the various pro- 
German organizations throughout the United States. 

In their efforts to create a sentiment in the United States against 
the manufacture and shipment of munitions to the Allies, the German 
agents under the direction of Dr. Albert, acting through Dr. Eumle3^, 
undertook the preparation and publication, in April, of 1915, of what 
was known as an appeal to the American people, which was published 
in most of the foreign language newspapers of the United States on 
or about the 5th of April, 1915, and in about 70 of the principal 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 23 

daily papers published in the English language. This propaganda 
was handled by Louis N. Ilammerling, president of the American 
Association of Foreign Language NeAvspapers, -which has its head- 
quarters in the city of New York. A great deal of evidence has been 
given concerning the operations of this association in connection with 
the propaganda conducted for the United States Brewers' Associa- 
tion. Mr. Ilammerling appeared before the committee and was ex- 
amined at length, as well as other witnesses who testified on the same 
subjpct. 

The American Association of Foreign Language Newspapers is a 
corporation of which Mr. Hammerling had the controlling interest. 
It is, in fact, an advertising agency of the foreign-language ]:)ress of 
tlie United States, and through the parceling out of advertising con- 
tracts and business by Hammerling its so-called membership was 
held together and was used by Hammerling and others who retained 
him for political and propaganda purposes. 

Hammerling's clients consisted of a considerable number of large 
national advertisers, whose annual appropriations for advertising 
purposes ran up into very large amounts of money. This advertising 
was distributed among the foreign-language papers by Hammerling, 
who received a commission for placing the advertising contracts with 
the newspapers that belonged to his association. 

This association, in existence since about 1908, embraced between 
six and seven hundred newspapers published in various parts of the 
United States in about 30 foreign languages, exclusive of the German 
language, and including Bohemian, Italian, Jewish, Polish, Hun- 
garian, Servian, etc. 

It is quite clear from the testimony of witnesses and from the prac- 
tices shown by the arrangements made between Hammerling and the 
brewers' association that most, if not all, of the foreign-language 
papers accepted and printed practically anything that they were 
requested to do by Hammerling in the way of news and propaganda 
articles. 

The plan of publication of articles was as follows: The Associa- 
tion of Foreign Language Newspapers published a bimonthly maga- 
zine known as the American Leader, in the English language and 
to which various writers contributed articles. Many of these articles 
were translated into the various foreign languages, printed in proof 
form, and sent to the foreign-language newspapers who were mem- 
bers of the association for publication. 

In the case of the brewers who used the Hammerling association 
extensively a long series of articles on personal liberty were published- 
first in the American Leader, translated into 27 different foreign 
languages, and sent in proof form to the newspapers, and republished 
in the language of the individual paper. Mr. Percy Andreae, rep- 
resenting the brewers, prepared these articles which were signed by 
Hanunerling. 

In March, 1915, Hammerling was approached by Dr. Eumely with 
i> proposition to publish in the foreign-language press an appeal to 
the American people against the manufacture and shipment of muni- 
tions to the Allies. Hammerling denied knowledge of the fact that 
Eumely was working for the German Government, claiming that he 
went into the proposition purely from the standpoint of financial 
S. Doc. 61, 66-1 4 



24 BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMA.N PROPAGANDA. 

profit. This, however, is denied by one of his former associates, who 
had assisted in the preparation of the article. The appeal was pre- 
pared and arrangements were made to publish the same in some five 
hmidred of the papers who were members of the association, as well 
as in some seventy English-language papers. The consideration 
agreed upon was $205,000. The appeal was published, as arranged, 
on or about the 5th of April, 1915, in the daily papers and continued 
to be published in the weekly papers at intervals during the month 
of April. This appeal appears on page 568 of the record- and reads, 
in part, as follows : 

We appeal to the American people, to the high-minded and courageous Ameri- 
can press, and to the American manufacturer of powder, shrapnel, and cartridges, 
and we appeal to the workmen engaged in the plants devoted to the manufac- 
ture of ammunitions for use of the nations at war to immediately cease making 
powder, shrapnel, and cartridges destined to destroy our brothers, widow our 
sisters and mothers, and orphan their children, as well as destroy forever the 
priceless possession handed down by our ancestors. 

We appeal particularly to the American manufacturers and their workmen 
engaged in manufacturing any of these articles to suspend at once the manu- 
facture of powder and bullets, which are being made for the cruel and inhuman 
purpose of mutilating and destroying humanity. 

We appeal individually to the workmen of such factories, even at the sacrifice 
of their positions, to go on record as being unalterably opposed to being employed 
for the purpose of manufacturing ammunition to shatter the bodies and blot out 
the lives of their own blood relatives. 

It appears from the evidence that Hammerling had sent agents and 
representatives to the principal munition manufacturing centers prior 
to the publication of the appeal in order to ascertain the nationality 
of the various workers in the munition plants. Men were sent to 
Bridgeport, Conn.; Illion, N. Y. ; Bethlehem, Pa.; and to munition 
plants in Brooklyn. Hammerling denied that these men were sent 
to stir up any labor troubles, but were merely sent to ascertain the 
extent of the foreign element employed in the plants. 

This appeal had an enormous circulation, and, of course, was de- 
signed by the German agents to reach the foreign-born element outside 
of the Germans and to add the weight of this element to the general 
propaganda being conducted at the same time by the various propa- 
ganda organizations throughout the country. 

The extent of the circulation of the foreign-language press con- 
trolled by Hammerling at about this time is described by Percy 
Andreae in a report made to the brewers' association on October 15, 
1915, as follows: 

The personal-liberty articles appearing In the American Leader are being re- 
published in 30 languages in whole or in part by about 800 newspapers, with 
a total circulation of 6,000,000 copies. There are thus being reached through 
this channel 18,000,000 readers biweekly. The organization of this press and 
the elements surrounding it by the American Association of Foreign Language 
Newspapers has now reached the stage at which practical results can be ob- 
tained throughout the country by the application of proper organization meth- 
ods in any locality where this press is represented. This has been proven 
beyond question in Ohio, where in the last campaign, through the instrumental- 
ity of the foreign-language press, registration of voters of foreign origin or 
foreign extraction exceeded in one county alone by over 20,000 anything ever 
known in the political history of the county. 

It developed in the examination of Hammerling that, although the 
latter at times claimed to be an American citizen by naturalization 
and to have been bom in the island of Hawaii, in fact he was bom 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 25 

in Galacia, under the sovereignty of the Austrian Imperial Govern- 
ment; that he had made a false affidavit upon his application for 
naturalization in the State of Pennsylvania in 1901 and upon his 
own admission had only resided in the United States for a period 
of three years prior to his application for naturalization papers. 
He admitted that his principal property interests were in Galacia, 
and, wliile denying all knowledge of the fact that the German Gov- 
ernment had employed hmi and his association for propaganda pur- 
poses, admitted that he could see no harm in the appeal, as it was 
done purely for financial profit. 

It appeared from Hammerling's statement and from other evi- 
dence that all of his personal books, papers and documents, and the 
records of his association, covering tne years 1915 and 1916 have been 
destroyed. 

No other evidence on the use of the Foreign Language Press As- 
sociation for German propaganda purposes was obtained, but it is 
clear from the evidence that Hammerling was employed for a defi- 
nite purpose by the German agents and the record indicates that he 
knew at the time the purpose for which he was being employed. 

It appears from the evidence that there are several thousand for- 
eign-language publications in the United States, of which a large 
number were unpatriotic and disloyal to the United States, its prin- 
ciples and institutions, and it has been established that some of these 
were subsidized by the German and Austrian Governments. Nor was 
the foreign language press alone responsible for all pro- German 
propaganda. Many English newspapers, both before and for months 
after America entered the war, while not shown to have been actu- 
ally subsidized nor charged with actual violation of the espionage 
act, persisted in the endeavor through editorials, news columns, and 
cartoons, to create a popular prejudice against the war and against 
effectual action on the part of the United States. The effect of this 
attitude on the part of these English newspapers was to encourage 
Germany and German sympathizers. 

One of the most effective organizations of the German propagandist 
system was the German University league, an organization formed 
in the city of New York by a group of Germans, German-Americans, 
and American citizens who were strongly pro-German in their sym- 
pathies, including Dr. Edmund Von Mach ; William K. Shepard, of 
Columbia University; M. E. Hine, George Viereck's father-in-law; 
Dr. Hugo Schweitzer, chief chemist of the Bayer Chemical Co., and 
others. 

The constitution states the purpose of the league to be — 

1. To establish in tlie United States a well-organized center for former 
students at German Universities and other German institutions of similar 
standards in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and other countries. 

2. To cooperate with every effort to strengthen the regard for the Germans 
and for their aims and ideals, and to secure for them fair play and proper 
appreciation. 

3. To correct misinformation about German conditions and problems by 
placing before educated Americans and before the press of this country reliable 
material bearing on German affairs. 

This organization had branches in New York City ; Boston, Mass. ; 
Philadelphia, Pa.; Richmond, Va. ; Atlanta, Ga. ; Chicago, 111.; St. 
Louis Mo. ; Milwaukee, Wis. ; Kansas City, Kans. ; Dallas, Tex. ; and 



26 BREWING AlTD LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

San Francisco, Calif. Its membership Avas made up of college profes- 
sors, writers, publishers, clergymen, scientists, and, generallj^^, men of 
higher education. 

There is little evidence of the actual activities of this mem.bership 
as a group, with the exception of the work of Dr. Edmund Yon Mach, 
who wrote several books in favor of the German cause, wrote continu- 
ously for the newspapers, and presented a petition to Congress on 
the 2d of April, 1917, urging Congress to refuse to declare war 
against Germany. This petition is found on pages 1532 to 1536 of the 
Record. 

The only evidence contained in the record that the German Uni- 
versity League was subsidized by the German Government agents in 
the United States is contained in a message of Count Von Bernstorff 
to the foreign office, dated November 1, 1916, in which Von Bernstorff 
states as follows : 

Since the Lusitania case we have strictly confined ourselves to such propa- 
ganda as can not hurt us if it becomes known. The sole exception is perhaps 
the peace propaganda, which has cost the largest amount, but which also has 
been the most successful. 

Latterly I have been using the embargo association and some entirely reliable 
private intermediaries. I have also made use of the German University League, 
founded since the war. This has done its best to take the place of the German 

• Association, which has been of no use during the war on account of its 

management. The league has published under my collaboration an excellent 
collection of reports on the war, which will be of great service to our cause. 
The support which I have already given the league is entered in the first 
quarter's account for 1916, item No. 208. On the occasion of later installments 
to them I will refer to this report. I ask that this be sanctioned. 

It would be difficult to write a full and complete history of the 
ramifications of the German propaganda in the United States from 
the time of the beginning of the European war down to the date 
of the departure of the official German group in February, 1917. 
Much of the material available discloses connections of various 
individuals and firms now under investigation by the Department 
of Justice and other information of persons now under indictment 
and awaiting trial. 

It is needless to say tha,t perhaps only a comparatively small part 
of the whole system will ever be known. 

Sufficient evidence has been produced before this committee to es- 
tablish the fact of the inauguration in the United States of a wide- 
spread system and most of its principal ramifications and activities. 

There is a sharp line of clemarkation to be drawn between legiti- 
mate commercial enterprises conducted by a foreign power within 
the United States and propaganda conducted for the purpose of 
influencing public opinion and official action. 

In order to prevent the assimilation of the aliens coming to this 
country, the Austrian Government organized the large financial 
institution, having branch offices throughout the country, and the 
active endeavor of this institution was to secure the funds and earn- 
ings belonging to aliens for transfer to their native country. In 
this way as much as $400,000,000 was annually sent out of this 
country. In connection with these financial activities, this institu- 
tion promoted the separatist movement, having for its purpose the 
holding together in nativistic groups the alien elements of our 
population. 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 27 

BOLSHEVISM. 

On the 4th day of February, 1919, the Senate adopted the follow- 
ing resolution, No. 436, and in pursuance to the directions therein 
contained your committee proceeded to make the inquiry requested, 
and the testimony taken by your committee is contained in the 
printed record, entitled " Bolshevik propaganda," which is herewith 
transmitted. 

Resolved, That the authority of the Committee on the Judiciary conferred 
by S. Res. 307 be, and the same hereby is, extended so as to include the power 
and duty to inquire concerning any efforts being made to propagate in this 
country the principles of any party exercising or claiming to exercise authority 
in Russia, whether such efforts originate in this country or are incited or 
financed from abroad, and, further, to inquire into any effort to incite the ovei'- 
throw of the Government of this country or all government by force, or by 
the destruction of life or property, or the general cessation of industry. 

In order to determine the possible connection and relation between 
the principles of government advocated by those claiming to exercise 
authority in Russia and the several activities now being carried on 
in the United States, it was deemed essential that a careful inquiry 
be made to determine the exact nature of the so-called principles of 
government now being applied in Russia. The record includes the 
constitution and a compilation of many of the so-called laws in force 
in Russia from which the nature of the paper government can be de- 
termined and the testimony of many eyewitnesses of the attempted 
application of this paper government discloses the character and 
nature of the actual government in practical operation. The investi- 
gation which your committee has conducted convinces it that few of 
either the advocates or opponents, in this country, of the present Rus- 
sian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic, are familiar with the funda- 
mental principles upon which this Government is attempting to per- 
petuate itself. Consequently the agitation growing out of develop- 
ments in Russia has largely degenerated into appeals to the prejudices 
and the animosities that are inherent in the selfish natures of most 
individuals and little or no appeal has been made to the intelligence 
of the people. 

It is therefore not surprising that the word " Bolshevism " has now 
become merely a generic term, and in America is nothing more than 
a slogan of the elements of unrest and discontent. 

By reason of their ignorance as to what Bolshevism as a code of 
political and social morals in Russia means, almost every dissatisfied 
element, from the radical anarchist to the theoretical idealist, has 
seized upon it as approaching something of a Utopian nature. It is 
interesting to note that every witness called before your committee as 
a champion of the cause of the principles of the Russian Socialist Fed- 
eral Soviet Republic admitted that he or she had never read the con- 
stitution of the government of which he was the champion. 

The word Bolshevism has been so promiscuously applied to various 
political and social programs that we feel that it is of paramount im- 
portance that the delusions and misconceptions as to what it really is, 
as it exists to-day in Russia, should be, as far as possible, removed 
and that the people of the United States should be thoroughly in- 
formed as to just what this much-discussed institution really is, both 
in theory and in practice. 



28 BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

Your committee is of the opinion that the best answer that can 
be given to the argument of the champions of this Eussian institu- 
tion is a true explanation of its real nature and the actual principles 
upon which it is founded as well as the unavoidable consequences 
that would follow its adoption. The word Bolshevik is the name of 
the party that controls the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Repub- 
lic and that dictated its constitution. We are, therefore, justified in 
using this name to identify the constitution which it dictated and m 
accepting that constitution and the laws that have been prescribed 
under it as the platform and program of Bolshevism. 

The following are a few of the fundamental facts descriptive of 
Bolshevism and the form and character of the government established 
and operated by the Bolshevilri in Russia under the name of the " Rus- 
sian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic." 

It is the dictatorship of a class and is not a democratic form of gov- 
ernment. In its actual application it has become an autocracy of a 
few individuals who exercise their authority and suppress all opposi- 
tion by fear, terrorism, and force. It has developed into as much of 
an autocracy, though more cruel in its methods, as the monarchial 
government of the Czar's regime. Under the provisional government 
of Kerensky an effort was made to establish a democracy and to in- 
augurate a socialistic state under that form of government. With a 
view to establishing such a democratic government the provisional 
government, on July 22, 1917, ordered the election of the constituent 
aKstimbly to be voted for by all of the people of Russia on September 
30, 1917. Prior to this time general elections in Russia on an equal 
suffrage basis were unheard of, and it therefore became necessary for 
the provisional government to create the necessary election machinery 
and to secure a complete and impartial registration of the newly 
created electorate. The difficulties encountered in this undertaking 
made it necessary in August to postpone the election of the constituent 
assembly from the 30th of September to the 25th of November. This 
postponement was seized upon by the Bolsheviki as raising an issue 
through which they could attack the provisional government, and 
they charged that government with having an ulterior purpose in 
directing this postponement. 

In raising this issue they appealed to the people to arise in defense 
of a democratic form of government by overthrowing the provisional 
government and securing for themselves thereby, through the Bol- 
shevik Party, the benefits and advantages of a democracy and the 
election of a constituent assembly as an instrument which would 
make possible the establishment of a constitution based upon the 
equality of man and secure to all Russian citizens equal participa- 
tion in the affairs of government. With this issue, among others, the 
Bolshevik. Party overthrew the provisional government in the Octo- 
ber revolution and immediately issued a decree (Exhibit 1, appendix 
of record of hearing) ordering "that the elections to the constituent 
assembly shall be held on November 25, the day set aside for this 
purpose " by the provisional government and ordering that the free- 
dom of the ballot should be adequately safeguarded. At the ap- 
pohited time the constituent assembly was elected and a canvass of 
the personnel of that assembly established the overwhelming defeat 
of the Bolshevik Party and the supremacy of other socialist parties, 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 29 

Avliereupon the attitude of the BoLsheviki toward the constituent as- 
sembly underwent a complete chanj^e, and from that time their 
antagonism toward a constituent nssembh^, universal equal suffrage, 
and a democratic form of government has been manifested in every 
official act of the government and in the actual application of that 
government to the several activities of the nation. 

In the original call for the election of the constituent asseml)ly, 
December 12, 1917, had been fixed as the time of its meeting. It was 
not, however, until January, 1918, that the Balshevik autocracy 
permitted the constituent assembly to convene. When it did meet 
the Bolshevik Party submitted to this representative body for adop- 
tion a set of resolutions denouncing the election at which it was 
elected, repudiating itself as representative of the electorate, whose 
commission it held, and declaring that there was no proper function 
for it to perform in the proposed new government of the Russian 
nation. (Exhibit 16, appendix.) As might well have been expected, 
the constituent assembly declined to pass this resolution, whereupon 
the Bolshevik members withdrew, and the constituent assembly wag 
forcibly dispersed by the Red Guard, and a democratic form of gov- 
ernment was lost to the Russian people. In its place has arisen the 
dictatorship of the small minority — headed by Lenin and Trotsky. 

Lenin, president of the Soviet of Peoples Commissaries, frankly; 
admits this in the following Avords : 

Just as 150,000 lordly laiulowners dominated the 180,000,000 of Russian 
peasants, so 200,000 members of the Bolshevik Party are imposing their pro- 
letarian will on the mass. * * * 

Nor is this dictatorship the result of a usurpation of power on the 
part of the officials of the Bolsheviki, but it is the recognized founda- 
tion upon which the whole governmental structure is erected, as is 
evidenced by paragraph 9 of the Bolshevik constitution, which pro- 
vides as follows : 

The principal aim of the constitution of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet 
Republic in the present transitory period is to establish the dictatorship of the 
city and rural proletariat and of the poorest elements of the peasantry in the 
form of a powerful all-Russian soviet government for the purpose of completely 
suppressing the capitalistic class. * * * 

[Note. — Under Bolshevism, the capitalistic class includes all persons who do not 
perform manual labor for a livlihood, or who employ any person in their business, or 
who own any property or receive any income, no matter how small the amount. The 
words " parasitic class " and " boursooisie " are popularly used by the Bolsheviki aa 
synonymous with " capitalistic class."] 

It is perhaps difficult to realize that it has been possible to per- 
petuate a dictatorship of such a small minority through the many 
months which have passed since it came into power. Without some 
understanding of the nature and character of the actual activities of 
the Bolsheviki the casual observer would be persuaded that the 
tyranny of this autocracy would in a short time bring down upon 
its head the wrath of the majority, who with reasonable effort would 
have no difficulty in overthroAving the usurpers. A study of the 
actual methods and practices of the dictatorship, however, clearly 
establishes the helplessness of the great mass of the Russian popu- 
lace. The Bolsheviki have inaugurated a reign of terror unparal- 
leled in the history of modern civilization, in many of its aspects 
rivaling even the inhuman savagery of the Turk and the terrors of 



30 BEE WING A]!0 LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

the French Eevolution. Under the evidence your committee has been 
compelled to impose the responsibility for this terrorism upon the 
government itself rather than attribute it merely to the excesses of 
individuals and groups undisciplined and untrained in the personal 
liberty acquired by them with the overthrowing of the centralized 
autocratic government of the old monarchistic regime. Terrorism 
and excesses in a state are either attributable to the encouragement of 
the state or the weakness and inability of the state to restrain the 
same. In Bolshevik Russia every instrument available for the ex- 
ercise of force and power is in the possession of that government, and 
those opposed to the government or who fail to render it whole- 
hearted support are completely suppressed and absolutely powerless. 
The government is more highly centralized and less restricted in the 
exercise of that centralized power than was the government of the 
Czar. The agencies used by the dictators in imposing their will 
upon the masses are less restrained and restricted in the exercise of 
their power by law, custom, or humanity than were the agencies 
utilized by the old regime. ' Economic domination unheard of and 
unsought in the past has been seized upon and usurped by the dic- 
tatorship. 

All these facts negative the suggestion of the existence of a degree 
of weakness which makes the government impotent to exercise the 
necessary restraint. On the contrary, every act of terrorism is justi- 
fied by the affirmative pronouncement of the Bolshevik government, 
either through its constitution and laws or the authoritative utter- 
ances of its officials. The government is founded upon class hatred, 
its avowed purpose is the extermination of all elements of society that 
are opposed to or are capable of opposing the Bolshevik party. 
" Merciless suppression " and " extermination " of all classes except 
the present governing class are familiar slogans of the Bolsheviki, 
and confiscation is adopted as an essential instrument in the govern- 
mental formula. As a guaranty of its perpetuation in power its 
underlying policy is that " the end justifies the means," and in the 
application of this policy the government denies the existence of any 
inalienable right in the Russian citizen and respects neither the right 
to life, liberty, or property. In its so-called declaration of rights the 
government adopts a policy which it hopes will result in " the destruc- 
tion of the parasitic classes of society," and as an aid to this end has 
decreed as an essential part of its fundamental law the principle of 
arming one class and disarming another, with a view of making the 
extermination and destruction more effective. In practice, this gov- 
ernment has classified all of those people who fail to sympathize with 
and support the existing dictatorship as the bourgeoisie, and has 
proclaimed the doctrine that their refusal to bow to the edict of 
the dictatorship should be answered by " violence toward the bour- 
geoisie." A careful survey of the innumerable acts of violence and 
terrorism committed in Russia will fail to disclose scarcely a single 
offense that has not been participated in either by their Red Guard, 
by Commissars, or by others having an official and governmental 
status. 

The dictatorship, utilizing Lettish troops and Chinese laborers as 
well as to some extent German and Austrian prisoners and criminals 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 31 

discharged from the jails as its so-called Red Guard to enforce its 
decrees, promptly secured possession and control of: 

(a) All arms and ammunition. 

(h) Practically all foodstuffs and commodities essential to the 
maintenance of life. 

(a) All clothing and household goods necessary for warmth and 
health 

(d) All gold, silver, and specie, including jewcilry, ornaments, 
gold and silver plate. 

This was accomplished by means of confiscation followed by tho 
nationalization and monopolizing by the State of all commercial, in- 
dustrial, and financial enterprises. Having secured possession of 
all of these instruments of physical and economic power and domina- 
tion, this dictatorship was enabled to enforce the submission of most 
of the population to its will. The rank and file of the people of 
Russia had no other choice. They could not resist os- oppose the 
Bolsheviki Avith force as they were without firearms and without 
ammunition. They could not refuse to obey its dictates else they 
would be starved to death. They could not defy the dictators, as 
they would be left without raiment. They could not sustain life 
with money possessing an intrinsic value, for they had none, and 
thousands have been starved to death and murdered as a result oi this 
regime. 

Possessing, therefore, every instrument necessary for the exercise 
of the forcible persuasion of the populace it became expedient to 
reinforce the dictatorship with an increased man power. Recog- 
nizing the state of the public mind it was necessary to guard against 
betrayal by those who were drafted into the service of the State, and 
the most effective weapons selected to secure the faithful execution of 
the will of the dictators were fear, terrorism, and a system of host- 
ages. By this system of hostages the relatives, family, and loved 
ones of the drafted subject were held as prisoners. Their food sup- 
ply, their clothing, even their lives, depending upon the fidelity with 
which the dictatorship was supported and its orders executed. 

Having professed an adherence to the democratic form of govern- 
ment to assist in securing control of Russia the Bolsheviki, in estab- 
lishing its paper government, sought to maintain its dictatorship 
under color of a representative political system. A recognition of 
the democratic principle that all men are created equal, however, 
would have necessitated the equal participation of all citizens in the 
affairs of government. Such universal participation in political af- 
fairs woulci have made impossible a dictatorship of the minority, but 
would inherently have been a rule of the majority and have accom- 
plished just what the dissolution of the constituent assembly was 
intended to prevent. The following of the Bolshevik government 
being more numerous in the cities, and these by reason of their con- 
centration within more restricted territorial limits, being more 
readily led and dominated, it was prescribed by constitutional direc- 
tion that representation from cities in the government should be five 
times as great as the representation from the provincial districts. In 
other words, representation from cities is in the ratio of 1 to every 
25,000 of the population, while from the rural districts and the terri- 
tory of the peasants, who constitute a large percentage of the Russian 



S2 BREWING AND LIQUOE INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

population, representation is 1 to every 125,000 of the population. 
Even this discrimination did not adequately safeguard the domina- 
tion of the Bolshevik minority. Disfranchisement of large groups of 
the population was necessary. By constitutional provision they de- 
nied the right to participate in the government and disfranchised the 
following classes: 

(a) All persons employing others in connection with the conduct 
of their business. 

(5) All persons receiving interest, rents, dividends, or an income 
from financial or industrial enterprises. 

(c) All merchants, traders and dealers. 

(d) All clergymen, priests, and employees of churches and re- 
ligious bodies. 

(e) Certain persons connected with the Czar's government, per- 
sons mentally afflicted and persons convicted ox certain crimes 
against the Bolshevik government. 

Even with these restrictions upon suffrage the Bolshevik govern- 
ment has refused to undertake the election of a constituent assem- 
bly. The elections that are permitted are conducted under supervi- 
sion of the Ked Guard and local bodies or Soviets that are not satis- 
factory to the dictatorship are removed and in some instances so- 
called commissars or officials of unquestioned loyalty to the govern- 
ment are imported from the cities to govern the affairs of the politi- 
cal unit (the local soviet) sought to be dominated according to the 
Bolshevik faith. 

Confiscation on a wholesale scale has been used as a means of 
undertaking to create and maintain tangible assets that could be used 
as the economic foundation upon which could be built the industrial 
and financial superstructure of the Bolshevik state. By constitu- 
tional edict and by a series of decrees issued by the dictatorship all 
land, forests, and natural resources of Eussia have been confiscated 
by the government in order that the Bolshevik government may be- 
come the landlord of the entire population and exercise the control 
incident thereto. Where a man shall live and toil and till the soil is 
determined by the State and the right to determine the nature and 
extent of each man's domicile, and the power to compel the migra- 
tion of the peasant from the locality of his birth or adoption, even 
to the extent of separating families as the population of the various 
communities expands or contracts, is exercised by the Bolshevik 
government through the laws which it has decreed for the control 
of the people. 

The alleged purpose of the seizure of land by the government was 
that the right to the land might be transferred to the rank and file of 
the people of Eussia in order that the individual Eussian peasant 
might become the unrestrained and unrestricted architect of his own 
future economic development, but the methods adopted by the Bol- 
shevik! have merely transferred the landlordship from the large land- 
owners, and in many instances from the peasant groups themselves, to 
the Bolshevik government, and the present control by that govern- 
ment is not confined to the land itself, as was the control of the land- 
owners under the old regime, but extends as well to the persons and 
even the tools, implements, and products of the peasants. The aged 
and infirm are deprived of all right to utilize and enjoy during their 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 33 

declining years the soil their efforts may have enriched, because their 
physical strength makes them powerless to perform all of the labor 
incident to its full cultivation. They, thereupon, become mere pen- 
sioners of the State. This system guarantees to the peasant only the 
present enjoyment of a given piece of land, and consequently only 
warrants him in so utilizing the beneficence of the State in according 
him the right to use the sairie as to insure the maxinmm present 
production to the exclusion of a scientific development that will enure 
to future advantage. In other words, an uncertain tenure is naturally 
accompanied by an exploitation rather than by a systematic develop- 
ment of the leasehold interest. Under this system, the peasant can 
never become the owner of the land he tills or of any other land. To 
aid in the system and to establish a larger control of peasant activities 
by the government the principle of confiscation has also been invoked 
in the case of all live stock and all agricultural implements, and as a 
consequence these essential instruments of land cultivation, these 
chattels necessary to the production of both meat and vegetable food- 
stuffs have become, without regard to the rights of former owners or 
the advantage to the individual of future ownership therein, the 
property of the Bolshevik government, and the only right thereto 
that the peasant can in the future acquire is a use upon such terms 
and conditions as the government may prescribe. 

As may well be expected, there seems to be much difficulty in deter- 
mining the manner in which this policy is being carried into actual 
operation, and it is apparent that only by the application of arbitrary 
methods can the already existing articles in these categories be made 
useful to any portion of the peasant population or be adequately pro- 
tected and maintained so as to preserve their value. It is also inter- 
esting to contemplate, but dubious to predict, how meat- food products 
can under this system be maintained at a sufficient quantity to sustain 
life. 

The thrift, industry, perseverance, and intelligence which has 
enabled a portion of the Russian people in the past to acquire and 
save mone}^ has also been penalized by the confiscation of all banks 
and banking institutions and their transformation into a state 
monopoly. 

Confiscation under the milder term of nationalization has elimi- 
nated from all industrial establishments such as factories, mills, and 
mines the business acumen and scientific methods necessary to success- 
ful operation and competitive methods. The absolute control of their 
operation and management is placed in the hands of the employees. 
This has been followed by the stagnation of the industrial life of the 
country, and even those nationalized industries which have been able 
to operate under government control have operated at an enormous 
percentage of loss, the deficiencies being met from the unlunited issue 
of fiat paper money printed by the government. The nationalization 
of the enterprises essential to the production and delivery of raw 
materials has so handicapped their production as to restrict the quan- 
tity of raw materials available for the maintenance of industrial en- 
terprises, and the whole economic condition of Russia has made it im- 
possible to secure relief from foreign sources. These industrial con- 
ditions can only continue so long as the government can succeed in 
monopolizing the means of subsistence, maintain an adequate military 



34 BEEWING AND LIQUOE IFTEKESTS AND GEEMAH PEOPAGAN'DA, 

force to enforce the decrees of the dictatorship, and force the recog- 
nition of worthless fiat paper money as the basis of its financial 
system. 

As the economic formula of the Bolsheviki prescribes the confisca- 
tion of the property rights of others, likewise it proclaims the doc- 
trine of the repudiation of financial obligations and the debts of 
Eussia have been renounced. Eepudiation is also invoked to secure 
the government against the incumbrances upon and liabilities of the 
property and assets of the enterprises, land and chattels seized by it 
under its confiscation program. This repudiation also aided mate- 
rially in suppressing and exterminating the creditor class, which 
naturally constitutes a part of the element that the Bolsheviki are 
pleased to call the Bourgeoisie, or capitalistic class, by depriving 
them of the right and ability to recover and utilize the earnings, 
savings, and accumulations of the past. As it affected them it was 
a form of confiscation. Eepudiation is, therefore, a consistent accom- 
paniment of confiscation and an essential element in the process of 
destruction. The financial condition of the dictatorship, however, 
required the adoption of some constructive policy that would finance 
it. It was necessary to maintain at least a color of legitimacy", an 
appearance of honest business methods, in supporting its so-called 
Eed Army and in securing control of the articles necessary to sus- 
tain life. Further than that it was desirable to devise ways and 
means by which service in the Eed Army and employment in na- 
tionalized enterprises might appear sufficiently attractive, and at the 
same time give an appearance of prosperity to the government itself, 
in order that hope as well as fear might assist in maintaining the 
Bolshevik government. The policy adopted was the printing of un- 
limited amounts of fiat paper money unsecured by any reserve. This 
naturally furnished to the government a cash capital limited only 
by the capacity of the printing presses of the government, which, in 
turn, had been confiscated and nationalized. Already it is estimated 
that a sum in excess of 30,000,000,000 rubles has been put into cir- 
culation. This has created a ridiculously inflated circulating medium 
of no material value to the public but of enforced value to the gov- 
ernment. 

The populace are compelled to accept this paper money from the 
Bolshevik dictatorship, but can secure little for it in transactions 
between one another. Barter and exchange have, therefore, become 
the only satisfactory means of conducting commercial transactions 
and the breakdown in the industrial life and transportation facilities 
of the country has made practically impossible the bringing together 
in the same community of the articles of trade and commerce neces- 
sary to the health, comfort, and life of the various elements of so- 
ciety. In consequence, many Eussians are faced with starvation 
while possessing large sums of the money of the government that, 
in their extremity, avails them nothing. There can be no perma- 
nence to a government whose financial system is founded upon such 
a method. 

The destruction of all effective military and naval power and the 
removal of the leadership of capable officers was essential to the 
establishment of a powerful dictatorship as well as to the complete 
abandonment of the eastern front during the war. By the safe con- 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 35 

clnct of Lenin from Switzerland through the German Empire into 
Kussia, regardless of the question as to whether he and his confreres 
were financed, as seems probable, in their revolutionary undertak- 
ing by the German Government, an obligation was incurred to de- 
moralize and destroy the existing Russian Army wliich had been 
more or less effectively maintaining the eastern front. How com- 
pletely this was accomplished is now history. They promptly de- 
creed in their so-called declaration of rights that " the soldiers and 
sailors are liberated from the power of autocratic generals, because 
(he generals will now be elected and they may be removed." All 
titles and degrees of rank and the authority incident to superiority 
were annulled and discipline was discontinued. Instantaneously 
the army and navy degenerated into a mere mob with everj' soldier 
i\ law unto himself. Demobilization was directed and the demorali- 
zation was completed. The organization of the Red Army was un- 
dertaken around the nucleus which the Lettish troops and sailors 
in the Red Guard of the October revolution provided. 

By similar means the organization of the Red Fleet was under- 
taken. Chinese laborers without other means of subsistence were 
easily enlisted. The opportunity that service in the Red Army and 
Red Fleet afforded for pilfering and looting under color of author- 
ized confiscation presented a sufficient invitation to the lawless and 
criminal elements that had become conspicuous through the open 
ing of the doors of prisons by the Bolsheviki to join those bodies 
and participate in the confiscation and seizures that were a part of 
the program of terror, fear, extermination, and destruction upon 
which the Bolshevik government had entered. The food and cloth- 
ing situation was desperate, and the government had acquired, 
through the application of its formula, a generous supply, and was 
using its Red Guard to gain a monopoly. In consequence the one 
reasonably certain way of gaining a livelihood was by affiliating 
with the Red Armj. This brought into the Bolshevik fold many 
people who otherwise would have been condemned to starve. Host- 
ages were held by the government to compel the submission of those 
who might otherwise have been recalcitrant. Thus a Red Army and 
a Red Fleet has been created, and they are charged with the execu- 
tion of the decrees of the dictatorship and the sentences of the so- 
called courts or revolutionary tribunals, and they are afforded a 
large degree of personal discretion in the exercise of duties which 
practically constitute a rule of martial law. 

Repudiating the doctrine of all radical revolutionary groups 
throughout the world that have claimed for the individual of all 
lands the right of conscientious objection for religious or other 
reason against the bearing of arms and the participation in armed 
conflicts, the Bolsheviki have adopted as the essential safeguard of 
their political fabric compulsory military service. As Prussianism 
found it essential to world domination by the autocracy of the Hohen- 
zollerns, so Bolshevism seized upon it as the mainstay that would 
weather its autocracy of the dictatorship through its campaign of 
confiscation and repudiation. 

All of the established courts and judicial institutions have been 
abolished and in their place have been created revolutionary tri- 
bunals. Under the dictatorship these new judicial tribunals dis- 



<36 BREWIIfG AND LIQUOK INTEEESTS AITD GEEMAN PROPAGAISTDA. 

regard all laws that "contradict the revolutionary conception of 
right." In actual operation these revolutionary tribunals have tried 
and condemned men in their absence. No right to bail is recognized 
and the penalty imposed depends largely upon the caprice of the 
court. The death penalty, the reestablishment of which under the 
provisional government was vociferously denounced by the Bolshe- 
viki, has been invoked for all sorts of crimes and misdemeanors. 
In fact, the procedure in the courts is a mere travesty on justice 
and most summary in its nature. 

Every activity of the Bolshevik government indicates clearly the 
antipathy of the Bolsheviki toward Christianity and the Christian 
religion. Its program is a direct challenge to that religion. The 
Christian church and Bolshevism can not both survive the program 
that is being developed by the Russian dictatorship and which 
it is undertaking to extend throughout the world. Not only have 
they confiscated all church property, real and personal, but they 
have established the right of anti-religious propaganda as a constitu- 
tionally recognized institution. Church and school have been di- 
vorced even to the extent of suppressing the Sunday school and the 
teaching of all religious doctrines in public, either in schools or edu- 
cational institutions of any kind, is expressly forbidden. Religion 
can only be taught or studied privately. All church and religious 
organizations are prohibited from owning property of any kind. 
All recognition of a Supreme Being in both governmental and judi- 
cial oaths is abolished. The clergy and all servants or employees of 
church bodies are expressly disfranchised and deprived of all right 
to hold public positions. The full significance of the attitude of the 
Bolsheviki toward Christianity is most fully manifested in the fact 
that, though by Russian custom and decree under the old regime, 
every newspaper or periodical published on Easter Sunday in the 
Russian Empire was required to carry the headline, " Christ is risen," 
on Easter Sunday in 1918, all Bolshevik papers substituted for this 
sacred sentiment the headline and slogan, " One hundred years ago 
to-day Karl Marx was born." Thus the issue has been framed be- 
tween the gospel of Karl Marx and the teachings of Christ. We 
reiterate, therefore, that Bolshevism and the Christian religion can 
not both survive. 

Bolshevism accords to the family no such sacred place in society 
as modern civilization accords to it. Conflicting reports have been 
passing current during the last few months relative to the nationaliza- 
tion of women by the new Russian government. Two or three local 
Soviets have apparently thus degraded the womanhood of their 
particular districts, but the central government has refrained from 
adopting any such policy in the whole nation. They have, however, 
promulgated decrees relating to marriage and divorce which practi- 
cally establishes a state of free love. Their effect has been to furnish 
a vehicle for the legalization of prostitution by permitting the an- 
nullment of the marriage bonds at the whim of the parties, recog- 
nizing their collusive purposes as a ground for the severance of the 
matrimonial state. 

The freedom of the press and of speech, though heralded by the 
advocates of Bolshevism as necessary to the intelligent particijDation 
of the people in popular government, has been abrogated in Russia, 



BREWIITG AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 37 

and by the usual confiscatory method of the accepted formula all of 
the mechanical devices and materials necessary for the publication 
of periodicals and all places of meeting and public assemblage hava 
been seized by the Bolshevik government. 

To make the control more complete and effective the publication 
of all advertisements, whether in regularly j)ublished periodicals 
or on handbills or programs, is made a monopoly of the govermnent. 
As a consequence the people of Russia are deprived of all facts, 
literature, and public expression, through the medium of the press or 
public meetings, except such as is approved by the dictatorship and 
has been passed by its censorship. 

In the attempted establishment of an educational system it is to bo 
expected that mucli difficulty would arise because of the large per- 
centage of illiteracj'' that afflicts Russia, and it is not surprising that 
this S3''stem is largely on paper and of little practical value. It is 
interesting to note, however, that under this system age rather than 
attainment determines the admissibility of the student to a given 
school or grade, and that to require the production of evidence of 
the qualification of a student for such admission is a criminal otfense. 
This again reflects the Bolshevik theory that equalization can ba 
accomplished by dictatorial decrees. 

The apparent purpose of the Bolshevik government is to make 
the Russian citizen, and especially the women and children, tha 
wards and dependents of that government. Not satisfied w-ith the 
degree of dependency incurred by the economic and industrial con- 
trol assumed by its functionaries, it has destro5''ed the natural am- 
bition and made impossible of accomplishment the moral obligation 
of the father to provide, care for, and adequately protect the child 
of his blood and the mother of that child against the misfortunes 
of orphanhood and widowhood. To accomplish this it has by decree 
expressly abolished and prohibited all right of inheritance, either by 
law" or will. Upon death all of the decedent's estate is confiscated 
by the State, and all heirs who are physically incapable of working 
become pensioners of the State to the extent that the assets confis- 
cated by the government make such pensions possible. 

Insurance of all kinds has been, nationalized, the assets of insur- 
ance companies confiscated, and the business of insuring life, prop- 
erty, accident, old age, and unemployment made a State monopoly. 
In the attempted liquidation of existing companies and associations 
the liquidating representatives of the goverimient seem only con- 
cerned in securing possession and record of all of their assets and 
fail to recognize the propriety of accurately adjusting their liabili- 
ties. As a consequence, those insured and the beneficiaries under 
existing policies find themselves without the protection for which 
they have been paying premiums. 

There has been much discussion with reference to the policy and 
motive of the associated Governments in landing troops on Russian 
soil. It is interesting to note that the combined military force at 
Archangel was landed at the solicitation and request of the estab- 
lished and de facto government of the northern Provinces of Russia 
to aid that government in protecting its citizenship fi-om the murder, 
cruelty, and confiscation of the approaching Red Army of the Bol- 
shevik government. 



38 BREWING AND LIQUOR IITTERESTS AI^D GERMAIST PROPAGAISTDA. 

The salient features which constitute the program of Bolshevism, 
as it exists to-day in Eussia and is presented to the rest of the world 
as a panacea for all ills, may be summarized as follows : 

(1) The repudiation of democracy and the establishment of a 
dictatorship. 

(2) The confiscation of all land and the improvements thereon. 

(3) The confiscation of all forests and natural resources. 

(4) The confiscation of all live stock and all agricultural im- 
plements. 

(5) The confiscation of all banks and banking institutions and 
the establishment of a state monopoly of the banking business. 

(6) The confiscation of all factories, mills, mines, and industrial 
institutions and the delivery of the control and operation thereof to 
the employees therein. 

(7) The confiscation of all churches and all church property, real 
and personal. 

(8) The confiscation of all newspapers and periodicals and all me- 
chanical facilities and machinery used in the publication thereof. 

(9) The seizure and confiscation of all public meeting places and 
assembly halls. 

(10) The confiscation of all transportation and communication 
systems. 

(11) The confiscation of the entire estate of all decedents. 

(12) The monopolizing by the State of all advertisements of every 
nature, whether in newspapers, periodicals, handbills, or programs. 

■ (13) The repudiation of all debts against the government and all 
obligations due the non-Bolshevik elements of the population. 

(14) The establishment of universal compulsory military service 
regardless of religious scruples and conscientious objections. 

(15) The establishment of uniA^ersal compulsory labor. 

(16) The abolition of the Sunday school and all other schools and 
institutions that teach religion. 

(17) The absolute separation of churches and schools. 

(18) The establishment, through marriage and divorce laws, of 
a method for the legalization of prostitution, when the same is 
engaged in by consent of the parties. 

(19) The refusal to recognize the existence of God in its govern- 
mental and judicial proceedings. 

(20) The conferring of the rights of citizenship on aliens without 
regard to length of residence or intelligence. 

(21) The arming of all so-called "toilers," and the disarming 
of all persons that had succeeded in acquiring property. 

(22) The discrimination in favor of residents of cities and against 
residents of the rural districts through giving residents of cities 
five times as much voting power as is accorded to residents of rural 
districts in such elections as are permitted. 

(23) The disfranchisement of all persons employing any other 
person in connection with their business. 

(24) The disfranchisement of all persons receiving rent, interest, 
or dividends. 

(25) The disfranchisement of all merchants, traders, and com- 
mercial agents. 

(26) The disfranchisement of all priests, clergymen, or employees 
of churches and religious bodies. 



BKEWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 39 

(27) The denial of the existence of any inalienable rights in tho 
individual citizen. 

(28) The establishment of a judicial system exercising autocratic 
power, convicting persons and imposing penalties in their absence, 
and without opportunity to be heard, and even adopting the death 
penalty for numerous crimes and misdemeanors. 

(29) The inauguration of a reign of fear, terrorism, and violence. 

This is the program that the revolutionary elements and the so- 
called " Parlor Bolshevists " would have this country accept as a 
substitute for the Government of the United States, w^hich recognizes 
that " all men are created equal," and that " life, libei't}^ and the pur- 
suit of happiness " are the inalienable rights of all its citizens. This 
is the formula they would have adopted to supersede the Govern- 
ment which was established by all the people of the United States 
" in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure 
domestic tranquillity," and " promote the general welfare," The 
mere recital of the program is a sufficient denunciation of it and of 
the individuals and groups which advocate and defend it. 

During modern times the effort of civilization has been directed to 
lifting mankind to the highest possible level of intelligence and 
social and material well-being in order to attain the highest degree 
of social equality between man and man. For the first time since 
the dark ages has an organized government undertaken to invoke 
a process of equalization by establishing as the basis of social equality 
the minimum rather than the maximum degree of existing educa- 
tional, industrial, social, and moral efficienc}'-, yet such is the policy 
of the Bolshevik government. It recognizes that the psychology of 
even the most illiterate elements of the Russian people is such that it 
can not perpetuate this doctrine in practice unless the same reac- 
tionary methods of equalization are simultaneously destroying tiie 
social fabric, the efficiency, the individual initiative, the ambition, 
and the material prosperity of the peoples of all other nations, whose 
competition and accomplishments would necessarily result in odious 
and destructive comparisons. Not content therefore in fathering in 
Eussia this retrograde method of establishing the equality of man- 
kind on the basis of the lowest strata of society, it has undertaken 
to arouse in the United States and in all other countries resentment, 
rancor, and hatred against those elements of society which have, 
by reason of their aptitude, perseverance, industry, and thrift at- 
tained that superior degree of intelligence and prosperity that has 
made possible the accomplishments of twentieth century civilization. 
The effort of progressing civilization has always been the uplifting 
of man to a higher and higher plane of living and a loftier place in 
society. 

The activities of the Bolsheviki constitute a complete repudiation 
of modern civilization and the promulgation of the doctrine that tho 
best attainment of the most backward member of society shall be the 
level at which mankind shall find its final and victorious goal. Tlie 
pulling down of the progressive rather than the lifting up of the 
retrogressive is presented as the doctrine of their new^ kind of civili- 
zation. To carry this message to the uttermost parts of the earth 
they have appropriated enormous sums of money, and, incidentally, 
their process of equalization in Russia was promoted by the starva- 
tion which the funds thus expended might have been utilized lo 



40 BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

alleviate. Their messengers and their friends have afflicted this coun- 
try, and their new civilization has been represented as Utopian in its 
nature. Many well-disposed persons have been deceived into the be- 
lief that they were promoting a social welfare movement in advocat- 
ing it. They have even given their substance that it might be per- 
petuated and extended. Yet, while these people who have been popu- 
larly called " parlor Bolshevists " are contributing to these Bolshevik 
agents, these same agents are appealing to the hatred and the lowest 
instincts of the more ignorant elements of the population, reinforced 
by the criminally inclined, to whom the doctrine of confiscation fur- 
nished a form of legalized robbery and a means of livelihood without 
physical or mental effort, to rise en masse and destroy our civilization 
and the so-called bourgeoisie with whom, of course, must be classed 
these same " parlor Bolshevists " who are assisting, by lending funds 
and respectability to the movement, in bringing tne temple down 
upon their own heads. 

It is significant, however, that in the United States only a portion 
of the so-called radical revolutionary groups and organizations ac- 
cept in its entirety the doctrine of the Bolsheviki. They have, how- 
ever, all seized upon Bolshevism as a rallying cry and are under- 
taking to unite all of these elements under that banner for the pur- 
pose of accomplishing the initial step in their common formula, to 
wit, the overthrow of existing governmental institutions and the 
complete demoralization of modern society. With this accomplished 
each group hopes that it can muster sufficient strength to maintain 
a supremacy in the new social order and invoke the policies of its 
particular creed. Most of these groups accept the common ground 
that forcible, as distinguished from political, action should be used 
as the instrument to secure the overthrow of the present government 
and in so doing defy and repudiate the democratic form of govern- 
ment which guarantees under our Constitution the rule of the ma- 
jority. Like the Bolsheviki in Russia, these groups recognize in 
the destruction of life, property, and personal security the neces- 
sary preliminary to the establishment of a government founded 
upon the violence of the minority. They realize that riot, disorder, 
and hunger breed hatred, blood lust, and desperation, and that with- 
out these mankind can not be driven to the use of force to accom- 
plish an end attainable by lawful and peaceable political methods 
under the existing government. 

The radical revolutionary elements in this country and the Bol- 
shevik government of Russia have, therefore, found a common cause 
in support of which they can unite their forces. They are both fan- 
ning the flame of discontent and endeavoring to incite revolution. 
Numerous newspapers are openly advocating revolution. Literature 
and circular matter demanding a resort to violence are being widely 
circulated. Bombs and high explosives have been used in many parts 
of the country in an attempt to inaugurate a reign of terror and to 
accomplish the assassination of public officials. The demonstration 
of the consequences of this movement in Russia, no matter how 
graphic the description, is a distant, far-away picture to the average 
citizen of the United States. While entertaining and perhaps amus- 
ing him, much as the novel in modern fiction does, it fails to impress 
him as an actual existing institution, in a world growing smaller 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 41 

and smaller through the accomplishments in transportation and 
communication, that must be considered and met as an actuality. To 
understand and realize its real consequences it must be brought 
home to the citizen and applied to the life and institutions which he 
knows. 

With a view, therefore, of concretely illustrating just Avhat this 
new social order would accomplish if transplanted into the political, 
educational, industrial, and religious life of the United States atten- 
tion is invited to the following unavoidable consequences : 

1. The application of force and violence, the shedding of blood and 
the destruction of life and property, the common incidents of all 
revolutions, and all this to destroy a democratic form of government, 
under which the majority can secure just the kind of government that 
it desires. The advocac}' of revolutionary methods is an admission, 
therefore, that minority rather than majority rule is the goal sought 
to be attained. 

2. To make possible the control of the minority as the dictators 
of the majority, the disfranchisement of millions of substantial, pa- 
triotic citizens who would fall in the so-called bourgeois or capital- 
istic class. This would deprive of the right to participate in affairs 
of government — 

(a) Millions of farmers, merchants, and manufacturers, both large 
and small, employing persons in the conduct of their business, and 
all professional and business men utilizing the services of a clerk, 
bookkeeper, or stenographer. 

(b) All persons receiving interest on borrowed money or bonds, 
rent from real estate or personal property, and dividends from stock 
of anj'^ kind. 

(c) All traders, merchants, and dealers, even though they do not 
employ another person in the conduct of their business. 

(d) All preachers, priests, janitors, and employees of all churches 
and religious bodies. 

It is apparent with the millions of persons falling into these several 
classes, disfranchised and deprived of all right to participate in the 
affairs of government, accompanied with the immediate enfranchise- 
ment of all aliens who do not fall within these prohibited classes, 
and the opening of the doors of all prisons and penitentiaries, the 
domination of the criminal and most undesirable alien elements of 
the country would be a comparatively easy matter. To simplify 
the question of this control, however, the substantial rural portion 
of the population would be further suppressed and restricted, and 
under the revolutionary formula the voting power of the cities would 
be five times as great as that of the rural communities, the ratio of 
representation in cities being 1 to every 25,000 of the population, 
while that of the rural districts would be only 1 to every 125,000 of 
the population. In the United States the rural population under 
the 1910 census was considerably in excess of the urban. We must 
also remember that the application of the formula would include tlie 
disanning of all disfranchised classes and the arming to the teeth 
of these criminal and alien elements. 

3. It would result in the confiscation by the Government thus con- 
stituted of the land of the United States including 6,361,502 farms of 
which 62.1 per cent, or 3,948,722 farms, are owned in fee by the 



42 BREWIlil'G AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

farmers who cultivate them and represent the labor and toil of a life 
time. On the farms of the United States there are improvements, 
machinery, and live stock to the value of $40,991,449,090 (census of 
1910), all of which would be confiscated with the land. The con- 
fiscation program would include the more than 275,000 manufactur- 
ing establishments, including the $22,790,980,000 of invested capital, 
much of which is owned by the small investor whose livelihood de- 
pends upon the success of the respective enterprises. The confiscation 
would also include 203,432 church edifices. Forests aggregating 
555,000,000 acres would be seized by the government and an annual 
product of $1,375,000,000 would come under the control of the dic- 
tatorship. Dwellings to the number of 17,805,845, of which 9,093,675 
are owned in fee, with 5,984,248 entirely free from debt, would be 
confiscated and the owners dispossessed at the pleasure of the gov- 
ernment. 

4. Although clamoring loudly for a free and unrestricted press 
the revolutionary program would require the seizure and confiscation 
of the 22,896 newspapers and periodicals in the United States, to- 
gether with all mechanical equipment necessary for their publica- 
tion, and a control and ownership of the public press by the govern- 
ment. 

5. Complete control of all banking institutions and their assets is 
an essential part of the revolutionary program, and the 31,492 banks 
in the United States would be taken over by the government and the 
savings of millions, including 11,397,553 depositors drawing interest 
on accounts in savings banks, and consequently belonging to the so- 
called bourgeois or capitalistic class, jeopardized. 

6. One of the most appalling and far-reaching consequences of an 
application of Bolshevism in the United States would be found in 
the confiscation and liquidation of its life insurance companies. 
There is 20 per cent more life insurance in force in this country than 
in all the rest of the world and nine-tenths of it is mutual insurance. 
Almost 50,000,000 life insurance policies representing nearly $30,- 
000,000,000 of insurance, the substantial protection of the women 
and children of the Nation would be rendered valueless. 

7. The atheism that permeates the whole Russian dictatorship is 
clearly reflected in the activities of their revolutionary confreres in 
the United States and in. their publications they have denounced our 
religion and our God as " lies." This gives added significance to the 
revolutionary attitude toward the Christian Church and the Chris- 
tian religion. The prohibition of religious schools and the teaching 
or studying of religion, except in private, would necessitate the 
abolition of 194,759 Sunday schools in the United States and a great 
number of seminaries, colleges, and universities; 19,935,890 Sunday 
school scholars would be deprived and prevented from enjoying the 
institution that has become an important part of their lives and is 
one of the great moral influences of the Nation. Catholic schools,, 
colleges, and seminaries to the number of 6,681 would be suppressed.. 
Church property of the value of $1,676,600,582 would be confiscated 
and 41,926,854 (census of 1916) members of 227,487 church organi- 
zations would be subjected to the domination of an atheist dictator- 
ship. 

Notwithstanding the fact that every champion and defender of 
Bolshevism that testified before your committee unequivocally ad- 



BREWrN-Q AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 43 

niitted that the Bolshevik formula was not adaptable to the economic 
and social life of the United States, they and their cocvanjiclists 
persist in their appeals to the passion of the people in an attetn))t to 
provoke discontent and hatred. In cooperation with the revolution- 
ary elements, destruction of existing social and governmental insti- 
tutions by violent methods is being promoted. They must, therefore, 
be condemned as the mere champions of discontent and disorder, 
offering no practical and acceptable ideal, as they profess to have, 
with wiiich to soften and appease the wrath that thej' are undertak- 
ing to arouse. 

GENERAL STATEIklENT AND OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS. 

The testimony taken before this committee having been printed, a 
further review thereof is deemed unnecessary. A careful consider- 
ation of this record discloses certain well-defined abuses, prejudicial 
to the best interests of the Nation and calculated to undermine and 
destroy our form of government. The Nation having engaged in the 
greatest war in history with the purpose of saving the world for 
democracy, now emerges from that struggle confronted with the 
paramount duty of preserving democracy for the world. 

The disclosures before this committee concerned (a) the political 
activities of the liquor interests in their effort to control and dominate 
elections and public officials, {b) the propaganda of the agents, repre- 
sentatives, and sympathizers of a foreign government, the form of 
which and whose purposes, industrial, commercial, and political, were 
incompatible with and antagonistic to the form, ideals, and purposes 
of the Government of the United States, and (c) Bolshevism as it 
exists in Russia and the activities of its champions in the country. 
No useful purpose is to be served by reviewing and recounting the 
reprehensible activities of either of the elments whose conduct has 
been the subject matter of this inquiry. A perusal of the testimony 
furnishes adequate evidence of it. This testimony embodies such an 
exposure of all of these elements as to justify fully the investigation. 

The activities brought to the attention of tlie committee are so 
startling, however, that we believe that the real advantage of the 
inquiry will be lost unless Congress profits from the knowledge thus 
obtained by undertaking by appropriate legislation to make impos- 
sible a repetition of these activities, either on the part of the offenders 
who have been under investigation, and many of whose activities 
are still continuing, or by others who at some future time may seek 
to undermine the Government or pervert the popular will by the 
adoption of similar methods against which the Federal statutes seem 
to provide no adequate safeguard. 

With this end in view, therefore, this committee invites attention 
to certain abuses which are clearly established by the record of its 
hearings and a summary of proposed legislation the immediate 
adoption of which it earnestly recommends. 



That millions of dollars have been expended in elections, in con- 
nection with which Federal officers were voted for by special interests 
through organizations of their own creation and by methods of their 



44 BREWING AEB LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

own adoption. That secrecy has surrounded these expenditures and 
the activities thereby induced. That the publicity and accounting 
sought for all political expenditures by the corrupt practices acts of 
the Federal and the several State Governments has been largely 
defeated. That the Federal corrupt practices statutes are entirely 
inadequate to meet present-day political methods and are easily 
evaded without involving a violation of the statute. Any effective 
corrupt practices act must provide — 

(1) For full publicity of all receipts and expenditures intended to 
influence in any way the result of an election. 

(2) To bring under legal control and supervision every committee 
and organization participating in a political activity. 

(3) To perpetuate and preserve for a reasonable time a complete 
record of the financial transactions of all individuals, candidates, 
committees, and organizations. 

(4) To define clearly the purposes and activities for which money 
can be legally expended. 

(5) To require publicity that will unequivocally fix responsibility 
for all paid and inspired advertising or publicity matter used and 
intended either openly or secretly to affect the result of an election. 

II. 

Newspapers printed in both English and foreign languages have 
been subsidized directly and indirectly for the purpose of undertaking 
to influence the minds, thoughts, and actions of the people of the 
United States without disclosing in any way the commercial or 
political influence financially interested. It is of great importance 
that every facility should be afforded to all elements of society and to 
every commercial, industrial, so"cial, ^ religious, and educational 
interest to present openly and frankly its views on every subject not 
aimed at the impairment of the sovereignty of the Nation or in dis- 
paragement of our form of government as established by the Consti-^ 
tution. But as the right to present these various contentions should 
be preserved as inalienable, so the public to whom the appeal is made 
have an inalienable right to know and to be advised as to who is the 
spokesman of a given cause. Newspapers have become such an 
educational medium that the public should be afforded an ample 
opportunity to know just who their instructors are. 

The act of Congress of August 24, 1912, undertook to accomplish 
this, but in the light of experience it is n'ow clearly established that 
this act is inadequate. It permits of the adoption of man^ sub- 
terfuges by which its purpose is defeated though its spirit is violated 
without the commission of a legal breach of its prohibitions. 

It is the opinion of this committee that this act should be amended 
and made more effective in several important particulars. 

III. 

The foreign-language press of the country as now conducted has 
the effect and in many instances is inspired with the purpose of dis- 
couraging the assimilation of the foreign elements with the American 
people and has been utilized by special interests for political and 
propaganda purposes. The financial condition of many of these 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 45 

newspapers has made them the easy and cheap victims of designing 
pei-soiis and interests whose financial advantage is best secured by 
retarding the Americanization of the alien and limiting him to tho 
use of the foreign-language paper as his sole source of information. 
The foreign-language press exerts a greater infiuenco upon its readers 
than an English newspaper does because of the limited educational 
facilities of the persons who can only read and talk in such foreign 
tongues, and consequently the subsidization and domination of this 
press is proportionately more vicious in its effects than similar 
practices would be in the case of English newspapers. 

The experience of the last few years has clearly demonstrated the 
necessity of Americ4inizing the residents of this country, and espe- 
cially those who from time to time are assuming the responsibility of 
citizensliip. The aliens now rasiding within our borders or hereafter 
iinmigi"ating to oiir shores must either be assimilated by the Ameri- 
cans or they will be held together in their several nativistic groups, 
each group adhering to its own language and customs, with the con- 
sequent adherence, either consciously or unconsciouslj^, to the land of 
their nativity. While it must be recognized that during the time 
when they are merely the guests of this Nation a knowledge of their 
native language is all that can be expected, the Government is justi- 
fied in requiring that before their status is changed to one of citizen- 
ship and before they can be permitted, to participate in the govern- 
ment of the United States there should be some evidence at least of 
a purpose on their part toward that assimilation which is essentiaj. 
to the unity of purpose and substantial adherence to our institutions 
necessary to the healthy development of the Nation, 

Foreign-language newspapers are a danger to the country unless 
they are utilized to assist in the assimilation of the alien element and 
to aid in the process of Americanization which is essential to the 
healthy development of the population into a homogeneous whole. 
This much-sought-for Americanization would be impeded by either 
depriving the alien of the educational value of a newspaper in the 
only language he can read or by withholding from him proper aid 
and facility for learning the English language and failing to encour- 
age him to acquire the educational advantages incident to the master- 
ing of the language of his adopted country. With this in mind, 
therefore, this committee recommends legislation to control and 
regulate the printing of foreign-language publications in this 
country. 

IV. 

For a number of years prior to our entry into the World War agents 
of the German Government persistently carried on a great propa- 
ganda in the United States, the purpose of which was to promote the 
interests of the German Government and to create a sentiment in this 
country in favor of that Government to the prejudice of this Nation. 
Every activity which tended to weaken our Government or to arouse 
antagonisms that would demoralize the unity and morale of our 
population and every movement that was aimed at involving us in 
foreign disputes or domestic difficulties was encouraged and fi'c- 
quently financed by the agents and representatives of the German 
Government. 



46 BREWIITG AND LIQUOE INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 

To-day the forces of anarchy and violence are utilizing the finan- 
cial resources plundered by them from the European people they 
have succeeded in exploiting, to import into this country money, lit- 
erature, and hired agents for the purpose of promulgating the doc- 
trine of force, violence, assassination, confiscation, and revolution. 

As an effect of these activities there has appeared in this country 
a large group of persons who advocate the overthrow of all organ- 
ized government, and especially the Government of the United States, 
who favor revolutionary movements, repudiate the Constitution of 
the United States, and refuse to respect our national emblem and 
our governmental institutions. There are found among the leaders 
of this group many aliens who unhesitatingly abuse the hos- 
pitality which this country has extended to them and who because 
of that leadership are able to retard the real Americanization of the 
m.ore ignorant residents possessing similar racial characteristics. 
These persons encourage and maintain a solidarity of the people of 
the several foreign tongues which is used to create and incite a class 
hatred that is quickly absorbed by and incorporated into the revo- 
lutionary movement led by them. The alien element in this coun- 
ti'y is the most susceptible and is the first to adopt violence as an 
effective weapon -for supremacy. 

More reprehensible than the alien element is that class of American 
citizens, whether native born or naturalized, who, having obligated 
themselves to support and defend the Constitution of the United 
States, lightly disregard their responsibilities and promulgate the 
doctrine that the form of Government established by the Constitution 
should be overthrown and that a government responsive to a class 
rather than to all the people should be forcibly substituted therefor. 
It is a significant fact that almost without exception the persons in 
this country who are to-day advocating revolution and violence and 
all of the suffering, pain, and bloodshed incident to such a movement, 
have during the great struggle of the past two years undertaken to 
handicap, check, and obstruct in every way possible the military 
operations of this Government under the pretext that their con- 
sciences would not permit them to take the life of their fellow men 
even in war. The destruction of life, property, and government has 
no horrors to them when directed toward the overthrow of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, but the use of force in defense of our 
country they conscientiously object to. 

Prior to the enactment of the statute of June 15, 1917, as amended 
by the statute of May 16, 1918, our Government was without laws 
adequate even to protect its own sovereignty: It is indeed unfortu- 
nate that this legislation should have been called an espionage act. 
Much of the complaint and criticism directed at this act was aimed 
more at the word used to designate it than at the text of the statute. 
Many of the provisions of this act are applicable only during time of 
war and consequently the restoration of peace will leave the Govern- 
ment of the United States more helpless, and because of the growth 
of the revolutionary movement as a result of the World War, more 
powerless, than it found itself prior to our entrance into that struggle. 

It is therefore imperative that there be enacted before the re- 
establishment of peace an act adequately protecting our national 
sovereignty and our established institutions. 



BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN PROPAGANDA. 47 

V. 

That the American people have been victimized and deceived by 
the activities of special interests and the subtle practices of de- 
signing- individuals, some of them the agents and representatives of 
foreign governments through the use of organizations having digni- 
fied and respectable names, which completely disarm all suspicion 
of the ulterior purposes of those who inspired their organization. 
By the use of euphoneous names given to supposedly patriotic, 
idealistic, and charitable organizations, patriotic and philanthropic 
citizens have been innocent victims of conniving representatives of 
foreign interests and governments and have been exploited by cor- 
rupt and dishonest elements. The Government of the United States 
long ago undertook by appropriate legislation to protect society 
from the fraudulent use of the mails commerciallj' . The public havo 
a right to some protection from deception being practiced by these 
mushroom organizations that have become so common. 

No legitimate organization is ashamed of its paternit}^, its pur- 
poses, or its activities, and a proper registration of all voluntai-j^ as- 
sociations or organizations appealing to the public through the 
mails for popular approval, financial support, and the propagation 
of its notions of govermnent, sociology, benevolence, or what not is 
a reasonable requirement that can be utilized to provide some security' 
to a much imposed upon public legislation is therefore recommended 
to this end. 

VI. 

Never have the Federal statutes provided adequate security against 
an unlawful and promiscuous use of high explosives. During the 
period of American neutrality, the representatives of the German 
Government, as well as many criminally inclined residents of our 
own country, resorted to the use of explosives for the destruction of 
life, property, and transportation facilities, and except for the pro- 
vision in the interstate-commerce act, which prohibited the shipping 
or carrying of explosives in interstate commerce, the offenses could 
not be reached by the Federal Government, and when reached under 
this act the penalties were entirely incommensurate with the offense. 
The act of Congress of October 6, 1917, entitled "An act to prohibit 
the manufacture, distribution, storage, use, and possession in time of 
war of explosives, providing regulations for the safe manufacture, 
distribution, storage, use, and possession of the same, and for other 
purposes," was enacted by Congress as a purely war statute, and 
becomes inoperative upon the restoration of peace. The efficacious 
effects of this legislation during the period of the war has not only 
justified its enactment as a war statute, but has impressed upon the 
people of the country the merit of its provision in times of peace as 
well as in times of war. 

All law-abiding persons recognize the necessity of controlling and 
regulating the manufacture, distribution, and possession of the 
instruments of death and destruction relied upon by the criminal 
and lawless elements of society. The obligation of the Federal Gov- 
ernment to protect the lives and property of its citizens would not be 
fully performed were Congress to permit the act of October 6, 1917, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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48 BREWING AND LIQUOR INTERESTS AND GERMAN jr jivjr Auraj« i/a. 

to die by limitation without enacting in its place a peace-time 
measure. 

The committee wishes to again express its thanks to Maj. Humes, 
Capt. Lester, and Mr. Benham for their untiring zeal and great 
ability in aiding the committee in securing the great mass of testi- 
mony which, in our opinion, will be most useful to the public. 
AU of which is respectfully submitted. 

Lee S. Overman, Chairman, 

William H. King. 

josiah o. wolcott. 

Knute Nelson. 

Thomas Sterling. 

As a member of the subcommittee, I have joined in the above 
report; but while agreeing with many of the statements and recom- 
mendations appearing on pages 43 to 48, inclusive, I desire to state 
that I am not in full accord with all the committee's recommenda- 
tions. 

William H. King. 



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